Asia Increasingly Front And Centre For New Zealand’s Future

Now in its 26th year, the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s annual Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples survey reveals just how critical New Zealanders’ believe Asia is to New Zealand’s future. Close to two thirds of New Zealanders (65 percent) say that it is more important now for New Zealand to be investing energy and resources into building partnerships with Asian countries than it was five years ago.

The survey also finds that New Zealanders perceive many Asian countries to be friendlier towards New Zealand than in previous years, and that there is significant public support for increasing New Zealand’s economic, political and social ties across the Asia region.

Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono executive director, Simon Draper, says that the survey shows that while China remains a central part of how New Zealanders are seeing Asia, other countries like Japan, Singapore and South Korea are starting to receive greater attention. “Our survey data tells us that New Zealanders see value in New Zealand maintaining a range of partnerships across Asia, and that it’s important to have a long-term vision and plan for guiding our engagement with the world’s most dynamic region.”

New Zealanders feel warmer towards countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, and they also see countries such as India to be important partners for New Zealand’s future. Simon Draper notes: “In contrast, public sentiment towards both Russia and North Korea has sharply declined, while feelings towards China remain mixed.”

Climate change, fake news and disinformation, a global economic downturn, and cyber-attacks are the top potential threats that New Zealanders worry about. New Zealanders are also paying attention to rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait; nearly two-thirds of New Zealanders (63 percent) say they are at least ‘fairly concerned’ about the possibility of the outbreak of conflict.

The Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples survey also provides a snapshot of how New Zealanders are connecting to Asia at an everyday level through media consumption, travel, commerce, cuisine, and popular culture. “In addition to trade, the last few years have seen New Zealanders’ Asia interests grew in a range of other areas – entertainment, sports, innovation, and culture a trend likely to continue as the global centre of gravity for these sectors moves increasingly towards Asia” concluded Mr Draper.

About the Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples Survey

Since 1997 the Foundation has undertaken regular research to measure New Zealanders’ perceptions of Asia. The research helps inform the Foundation’s work, but is also used by a range of other sectors, organisations and governments to gauge public sentiment on Asia and better understand how New Zealanders are seeing the Asia region and regional developments.

The Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples survey drew on a nationally representative sample of 2,323 respondents aged 15 years and over. The survey was undertaken between 4 – 30 November 2022. A survey of 2,323 people has a maximum margin of error of +/- 2.0 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

About the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono 
 

Established in 1994, the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono is New Zealand’s leading authority on Asia. It provides experiences and resources to help New Zealanders build their knowledge, skills and confidence to thrive in Asia. It works in partnership with influential individuals and organisations in New Zealand and Asia. www.asianz.org.nz

Appendix:

About the New Zealanders’ Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples 2022 report 
 

This report draws on the following:

• A major quantitative survey of 2,334 New Zealanders aged 15 and over carried out by Kantar Public in November 2022. The survey was nationally representative by age, gender, ethnicity and region. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 2.0 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
• Four qualitative focus groups facilitated by Kantar Public between 14-25 November 2023.

Key findings

Importance of Asia 
 

• Four in five New Zealanders (80 percent) believe that it is important to develop political, economic and social ties with Asia.
• New Zealanders consider Asia to be the most important region for our future after Australia. China, Japan, Singapore, India, and South Korea are also considered important countries for New Zealand’s future.
• Nine out of ten New Zealanders (90 percent) say it is important for New Zealand to invest energy and resources into building partnerships with Asia. Two-thirds of New Zealanders (65 percent) consider this to be more important than it was five years ago.

Knowledge of Asia 
 

• Half of New Zealanders (50 percent) believe themselves to have a “fair amount” of knowledge about Asia. This is largely unchanged since 2019. Knowledge levels have, however, grown over the past decade. In 2013 only 33 percent of New Zealanders considered themselves to have a “fair amount” of knowledge about Asia.
• When New Zealanders think of the word Asia, they first and foremost think China followed by “food” and references to population – results largely unchanged over the last four years.
• Four out of five New Zealanders (79 percent) say that both teaching students about Asia and offering Asian language courses are at least somewhat important for New Zealand’s education system to provide.
• New Zealanders’ knowledge level for North Asia (42 percent say they know at least a fair amount) is higher than for Southeast Asia (31 percent) and South Asia (25 percent).

Friend and threat perceptions

• Japan is considered the country in Asia friendliest towards New Zealand, followed by Singapore, South Korea, and the Philippines.
• Many Asian countries are perceived to be more friendly towards New Zealand compared to 2021. The most significant shifts have been for the Philippines (an 8 percentage point increase), Pakistan (a 6 percentage point increase), South Korea, Viet Nam and Indonesia (all 5 percentage point increases).
• China is viewed as friendly by 30 percent of New Zealanders and threatening by 37 percent.
• India is viewed as friendly by 49 percent of New Zealanders and threatening by 7 percent.
• Russia and North Korea are viewed as the two countries most threatening towards New Zealand by a significant margin. Other countries considered somewhat threatening, but well below Russia and North Korea, are Pakistan (19 percent) and Myanmar (15 percent).

Security and political developments in Asia

• The majority of New Zealanders consider Japan to be the major power that acts the most responsibly in the world.
• Climate change, the impact of fake news and disinformation, and global economic instability are top concerns for New Zealanders when it comes to New Zealand’s vital interests.
• Sixty-three percent of New Zealanders are at least somewhat concerned about the potential for military conflict over Taiwan.

Views of how Asia will impact New Zealand

• New Zealanders are positive about the potential economic, technological and social impacts of Asia on New Zealand for the next 10-to-20 years.
• New Zealanders worry about the environment and the potential negative impact that Asia’s security and political dynamics could have on New Zealand.

Building connections with Asia

• New Zealanders are supportive of a range of ways to grow New Zealand’s relationship with Asia, including through trade (75 percent say it’s important) and government-to-government exchange (71 percent).
• Cultural competency in New Zealand’s future workforce is considered very important. Ninety percent of New Zealanders say it’s important to have confidence in dealing with people from Asian cultures. Eighty-six percent say understanding Asian protocols and etiquette is important. Understanding Asian society (83 percent) and languages (79 percent) is also considered important.
• New Zealanders have a range of interests in Asia, including politics, history and current affairs (66 percent interested), music, arts and literature (59 percent), food from Asia (87 percent), business and trade (70 percent), and tourism and travel from or to Asia (78 percent).

News media and entertainment consumption 
 

• More New Zealanders recall having consumed Asia-related News in 2022 than in 2021 or 2020.
• New Zealanders have mixed views on whether there is enough news coverage of Asia in New Zealand media. Twelve percent believes Asia receives too much coverage and 30 percent believe Asia received too little coverage.
• Around half (46 percent) of all New Zealanders consider New Zealand media reporting to be balanced.
• Around two-thirds of New Zealanders watch, listen or play Asia-related entertainment each month.
• New Zealanders are interested in receiving more coverage on Japan, Singapore, South Korea, China and India, as well as on a number of Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Viet Nam.
• https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/2306/Perceptions_of_Asia_Report_Embargoed_till_21_June_2022.pdf

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