Foreword

At a time when China is making clear its strategic regional ambitions and when a tumultuous US presidential campaign is raising concerns about the United States policy, there is a great interest throughout the Asia-Pacific in the role of the United States in the region. What do mass publics around the region believe about the US presence in the Asia-Pacific? How does public opinion around the region vary with respect to China’s rising influence? What elements of American influence carry more weight and in which countries? How likely is conflict in the region? How beneficial is increased trade with the United States, or China, for that matter?

To answer these questions and many more we fielded virtually identical surveys in five nations — Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea. Many of the survey questions are identical with respect to the United States and China, permitting rigorous comparisons of public opinion both within and across countries with respect to the power and influence of the United States and China.

This process has benefited tremendously by the collaborative efforts of a network of six institutions across the Asia-Pacific: the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, the Perth USAsia Centre at the University of Western Australia, the Asahi Shimbun in Japan, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in South Korea, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Indonesia and the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies in China. Not only did this ‘Asian Research Network’ work together to help shape the survey itself, but representatives of each organisation convened to review the survey results, share insights, and identify areas of commonality and contrast in public opinion within the region.

Surveys of public opinion in Asia about the role of the United States are not new and we recognise the excellent work done by the Pew Research Centre, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and the Washington DC-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies survey on strategic elites. It is our hope that this survey, conducted as it has been by a network of institutions based in the Asia-Pacific and benefiting from a collective regional perspective in approach, will add to the understanding of popular views on some of the most important foreign policy questions of this era. Furthermore, we believe that the potential for comparison between perspectives in different counties on the same issues will highlight opportunities and challenges for policymakers in both the United States and the Asia-Pacific.