What does the Indo-Pacific think of Europe?

The European Union and major European countries are viewed more favorably than the United States or China in 15 Indo-Pacific countries, according to a study public opinion published this month. More than four fifths of the respondents from the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand have a favorable opinion of the EU. Respondents from Kazakhstan, Japan and Australia are the least in favor of the EU, but around two-thirds of respondents from those countries still view Europe favorably, according to the study by the Sinophone Borderlands research project at Palacky University of Olomouc, in the Czech Republic. The UK is the most favorably viewed country out of the 15 states (on average), followed by Germany, the EU and, in fifth place and ahead of the US, France. Indonesians and Malaysians would prefer their country’s foreign policy to align more with the EU than with China or the US. The six Southeast Asian states thought that the economic importance of the EU was almost equal to that of the US.

All this is cause for joy in Brussels, which is determined to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific. And it coincides with the conclusions of other studies. A poll from the Pew Research Center, conducted this spring but published this month, also revealed that the EU has a generally favorable view of the Indo-Pacific; more than two thirds of Australians and South Koreans consider it positive, as do more than half of Japanese, Singaporeans and Malaysians. And it coincides broadly with the surveys annual opinion of the “elites” of Southeast Asia conducted by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

A military role?

However, despite all the praise, the EU should take into account some data from the recent Sinophone Borderlands survey. Shortly after Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, returned from Indonesia and Southeast Asia in June 2021, his historic visit to the Indo-Pacific region, he wrote on his blog: “If we want to be a geopolitical actor, we also have to be perceived as a political and security actor in the region, not just as a development cooperation, trade or investment partner.”.

On a positive note, New Zealand respondents alone considered the EU more economically important than the US and China, although in the six Southeast Asian states surveyed it is almost on par with the US, according to the Sinophone Borderlands study. However, the EU was ranked as the least militarily powerful, compared to the US and China, by all 15 Indo-Pacific nations except India and Vietnam, where it came second only to the US. This is consistent with the opinion of the “elite” — ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute surveys found that just 0.8% of Southeast Asian citizens thought the EU has the most political and strategic influence — and is close to the truth, as European states are far behind. behind the US and China in this area. Therefore, much more needs to be done if, as Borrell says, the EU wants to be seen as a political and security player.

It is also interesting to note that there does not seem to be much of a correlation between positive perceptions of the EU and the bloc’s actual economic interests. As the report points out “Countries with which the EU has developed strategic partnerships, including Japan and South Korea, have relatively low proportions of respondents indicating positive views towards the EU. This suggests that the EU’s trade and diplomatic efforts may have little to do with the positive perceptions of Indo-Pacific countries towards Europe.”.

Indonesians were much more positive about the EU than Singaporeans, for example. And this despite the fact that Singapore was the first country in Southeast Asia to sign a free trade agreement with the EU and despite the fact that the EU is embroiled in several WTO battles with Indonesia over each other’s trade tariffs. Vietnam is the other country with which the EU has a free trade agreement, but a smaller percentage of Vietnamese consider the EU “very positive” than Filipinos, with whom the EU does not have a trade pact.

The ‘cultural appeal’ of the EU

One possible conclusion is therefore that economic benefits in the Indo-Pacific do not easily translate into popularity. Another interpretation is that the popularity of the EU has as much to do with the image that others have of European life as with what the EU actually does in your country. One of the reasons why the EU is popular seems to be its “cultural appeal”, according to the report. Compared to the US and China, the EU ranked first among the six countries surveyed (Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and second among the other nine states.

More respondents from Southeast Asia thought that Europeans have a better quality of life than Americans. This coincides with the surveys on the opinion of the “elites”. According to the latest ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute survey in Southeast Asia, an EU state was voted the second most popular holiday destination, behind only Japan. An EU member state was also the third choice for higher education if offered a scholarship, one place behind the UK.

However, the Sinophone Borderlands survey revealed that the “cultural appeal” in the EU is higher in the poorer countries of the Indo-Pacific. “Respondents from the more developed Indo-Pacific countries appear to be relatively more satisfied with the standard of living they enjoy in their home countries and therefore less impressed by how Europeans and Americans live”, says the study. This is not surprising, but it might suggest that the EU should pay more attention to creating economic links and exchanges with non-traditional and poorer partners.

Lastly, public opinion in the Indo-Pacific is not as polarized towards Europe, or rather, Europe is not such a polarizing issue in the region. (Views of the US and China were much more divergent among the 15 countries surveyed. About 80% of Japanese held negative views of China, compared to just 10% of Pakistanis.) And the same is true when China is taken into account. In May, the Sinophone Borderlands also published a poll on public opinion in China. It found that European countries continued to have a fairly positive reception in the country, despite the notable deterioration in political relations since 2019. Around 60% of Chinese respondents were positive towards Germany, the highest rate of any western country. The UK was the least popular, however around 40% of the Chinese were positive about it, compared to 30% for the US, the least popular country for them.

The study also found that Chinese respondents’ views of foreign countries closely matched their perceptions of those countries’ views of China. In fact, only a third of Chinese respondents thought that Germans had negative views of China. In the case of the French, it did not reach 40%. However, this is very far from reality. The last surveys from Pew state that 74% of Germans and 68% of French people have an unfavorable opinion of China. (Chinese respondents also thought Americans were more positive about China than they actually are.) However, this indicates that Europeans continue to have a certain cachet among the Chinese public, much more so than the US or Japan.

Article originally published in English in the Web from Internationale Politik Quarterly.