FILIPINOS have little trust in China, the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations showed Monday.
The SWS’ Third Quarter 2016 Social Weather Survey–conducted from Sept. 24 to 27 through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults nationwide and with a ±3 percentage-point sampling margin of error–found 55 percent of Filipinos had “little trust” in China.
Some 19 percent were undecided, and only 22 percent said they had “much trust” in China.
The results, the SWS said, yielded a “bad” -33 trust rating for China.
The results were down nine points from the -24 trust rating posted in June 2016, which gave China a “poor” trust rating at the time, SWS said.
China’s net trust rating has been positive only seven out of the 40 surveys conducted since the pollster first included it in August 1994, reaching a “moderate” rating of +17 in June 2010, just as President Benigno Aquino III was about to begin his term.
SWS classifies net trust ratings of at least +70 as “excellent”; +50 to +69 as “very good”; +30 to +49, “good”; +10 to +29, “moderate”; +9 to -9, “neutral”; -10 to -29, “poor”; -30 to -49, “bad”; -50 to -69, “very bad”; as well as -70 and below as “execrable.”
In his departure speech at the Davao International Airport on Sunday before leaving, first to Brunei Darussalam and then to China, Duterte said: “I look forward to renewing the ties of friendship between the Philippines and China and to reaffirm the commitment to work closer to achieve shared goals for our countries and peoples.”
In comparison, the same survey saw the United States getting the best score among seven countries tested for public trust, with a “very good” +66 in September that was nevertheless six points down from June’s “excellent” +72.
The SWS said that the US has been in positive territory since it first surveyed the superpower in December 1994.
Its score has ranged since then from a “moderate” +18 in May 2005 to an “excellent” +82 in December 2013, and has been above +60 since June 2010.
Two other close Philippine economic and strategic partners — Australia and Japan – had “good” ratings from Filipinos.
Australia scored +47 (62 percent “much trust”, 15 percent “little trust”), steady from June’s similarly “good” +49.
SWS said that Australia has been getting positive net trust ratings since it was included in the survey in April 1995, ranging from a “neutral” +3 in September 1995 to a “very good” +55 in August 2012.
The same survey saw Japan obtaining a net trust rating of +34 (56 percent “much trust”, 21 percent “little trust”, rounded off) in September, 14 points and one grade above April’s “moderate” +20.
SWS first surveyed public trust in Japan in December 1994 and found neutral net ratings from December 1994 to December 1996, ranging from -2 to +9, SWS said.
“It rose to ‘moderate’ +17 in June 1997, and has since then been at ‘moderate’ to ‘good’ levels, reaching as high as ‘good’ +47 in August 2012 and December 2013.”
Rated for the first time by the SWS were Norway and the Netherlands which scored “moderate” net trust ratings of +16 (41 percent “much trust”, 25 percent “little trust”) and +14 (40 percent “much trust”, 26 percent “little trust”), respectively.
The survey also found a “neutral” +3 (36 percent “much trust”, 34 percent “little trust”, rounded off) net trust rating for Taiwan, a 10-percentage point increase from the “neutral” -7 in the June 2013 survey.