Australians are suspicious and critical of China’s government as “authoritarian, undemocratic and oppressive”, according to a new survey by the Washington-based think tank The Pew Research Center.

About a quarter (23 per cent) of Australians who responded to the survey said human rights abuses were one of the first things to come to mind when thinking of China, and 11 per cent cited lack of freedoms in the form of government, repression and censorship.

“One man described the country as ‘a powerful, growing empire with a bad human rights record that uses a surveillance state and heavy censorship to keep its government in power with no real opposition’. Words like ‘conformity and ‘thought control’ also came up, as well as mentions of restricted freedom of expression for Chinese citizens,” the Pew report said.

“Australian adults most frequently mentioned the political system when thinking about China (29 per cent). Some specifically critiqued the government. For example, one Australian man said, ‘Chinese leadership is a threat to the rest of the world’,” the report said.

“Other Australians listed government actions, such as one woman who referenced ‘punishment for those who speak out about the government’.

The Pew researchers canvased 1227 Australians with questions of five key topics.

The survey comes in the context of official relations between Australia and China becoming strained in recent years.

The two countries have been involved in a trade dispute since 2020, when Australia called for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus with China responding by imposing new tariffs.

“Australian adults most frequently mentioned the political system when thinking about China (29 per cent). Some specifically critiqued the government. For example, one Australian man said, ‘Chinese leadership is a threat to the rest of the world’,” the researchers said.

They said a public focus on China’s government – rather than its people – is consistent with other recent Pew Research Center findings about China, including in the US.

The proportion of Australians who brought up China’s political system in their open-ended responses included 15 per cent who described how political power was distributed across or exercised in the country.

“Many simply used labels such as ‘undemocratic’, ‘authoritarian’ and ‘oppressive’.  One Australian man called it a ‘totalitarian one-party state’. An Australian woman described a ‘strongly focused government that will seek conformity from citizens’,” the report said.

Another 9 per cent of respondents specifically pointed to communism or the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

The survey found nearly a quarter of Australians mentioning some perceived threat that China poses to the world, their region, Australia or China’s own people.

“Most responses in this category focused on China’s general quest to be the most powerful country (7 per cent) or its perceived poor international conduct (7 per cent), including mentions of manipulation and bullying on the world stage,” the report said.

“For some Australians, China poses an economic or military threat (referenced by 4 per cent each). Perceived economic threats included ‘working their way into different countries by lending’, using ‘trade sanctions to try and force their way or take revenge’, or simply ‘“economic manipulation’. Mentions of China’s military included phrases such as ‘military strength’, ‘a military threat’ or ‘military expansion’,” the report said.-

Read the full Pew Center report here: How Australians think about China, in their own words | Pew Research Center