Forget UK, North America — Asia is most important to New Zealanders, poll finds
www.scmp.com
New Zealand’s affinity with Asia could be explained by similarities in cultures and values, says executive director of non-profit organisation that conducted the annual survey.

Some key takeaways from the Asia New Zealand report:

  • 80% feel it’s important for NZers to develop ties with Asia
  • 90% feel it’s at least somewhat important for NZ to invest in building partnerships with Asia, with 65% saying it’s more important than 5 years ago
  • 37% see China as a threat, in 3rd place behind Russia (72%, up 27 percentage points since last year) and North Korea (69%, up 5 ppt.). The rest are below 20%.
  • 63% are concerned about possible conflict over Taiwan

More key takeaways and the full report here on the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s website

RNZ has some less in-depth coverage of this too

  • @BalpeenHammerEnglish
    -1•1 year ago

    Saudi has a different culture to us with everything from religion to valuation of women, but they are a part of OPEC and they want our money so its a relationship of convenience. On the other hand the “government” of Afghanistan has a different culture and we have nothing to gain from eachother.

    So you should only be friends with people you can profit from eh?

    I can guarantee they didn’t start this study to prove that we need to distance ourselves from Asia.

    Why would anybody start a study to prove that?

    In this case its a non profit, and I can guarantee you their funding comes from Asian sources. Furthermore, its a poll - who did they ask?

    Do you know who they asked or didn’t you bother looking that up because you decided it was not possible for anybody who got any funding from any “asian” organisation to be honest about anything regarding asia?

    • @[email protected]English
      3•1 year ago

      Well let’s see - its not in the article, that was reported in the south China morning post, that does not show the questions asked, and only focuses on the one part of the poll that supports better Asian relations.

      “Why would anybody start a study to prove that?” You’re so close here to understand the inherent bias in this.

      And for the record, im not anti Asian like you are trying to force, im anti misinformation and bias. If you asked me directly “should we have better relations with asia” I would be in that ~70% group because they are our major trading partners. But I wouldn’t say yes over Australia, America’s and Europe as they are our security partners and a big part of our trade. I wouldn’t support increased immigration from China, but would be really happy with increased immigration from the Philippines. This is why the question asked and context is important.

      Im not going to continue to debate bias and misinformation here as its not my job to educate you - this is discussed in first year uni virtually everywhere, and honestly needs to be brought forward to primary school so our kids aren’t afraid to question the mass of information provided over the internet.

      • @BalpeenHammerEnglish
        -1•1 year ago

        “Why would anybody start a study to prove that?” You’re so close here to understand the inherent bias in this.

        I understand your bias for sure.

        And for the record, im not anti Asian like you are trying to force, im anti misinformation and bias.

        And have you proven that this is misinformation?

        But I wouldn’t say yes over Australia, America’s and Europe as they are our security partners and a big part of our trade.

        It looks like you didn’t even read the article. Nobody was asked to rank any country over another.

        Im not going to continue to debate bias and misinformation here as its not my job to educate you

        You should educate yourself.