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China’s Polling Ahead of Other Countries For Its COVID-19 Aid, But Beijing Still May Not Get the Soft Power Win It Desires

by Eric Olander

A new public opinion survey in Southeast Asia provides an indication that residents in some developing countries acknowledge China’s considerable contributions in helping to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, while still feeling ambivalent about Beijing’s motivations, according to the findings of a new poll conducted by the ASEAN Studies Centre at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

This is one of the first major polls in the Global South that points to the larger public diplomacy challenges confronting China’s efforts to derive soft power dividends from its increasingly ambitious drive to supply developing countries with vaccines.

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