A majority of Canadians no longer see China in a favourable light after the coronavirus outbreak.
An Angus Reid Institute poll found that only 14% of Canadians hold a “favourable” view of the communist regime.
Polling data shows that Canadian sentiment towards China has been on a steady downward decline since 2005, with a couple of brief rallies of support in 2009 and 2017.
However, since 2017, when 48% of Canadians had a favourable view towards the country, opinion among Canadians has plummetted to its new low.
“As nations have responded to the pandemic, Canadian views towards China are in apparent free-fall, as favourability of the nation hits a new low, dropping to 14% – half of where it was in late 2019, and representing just a quarter of where favourability towards China stood in 2017,” claimed the Angus Reid Institute.
When the results are broken down regionally, BC and Atlantic Canada had the most favourable views towards China, with 22% and 16% respectively seeing the country favourably.
Among party lines, Liberal supporters scored the highest in terms of favourability with 17% of respondents holding a “mostly favourable view.”
Conservative voters had the most negative outlook on China with 63% of people polled saying they look upon China with a “very unfavourable” view.
When Canadians were asked whether they agree or disagree that the “Chinese government has been transparent and honest about the COVID-19 situation in that country,” a wide majority either disagreed or disagreed strongly.
“There have been several recent accusations against China and its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, including a proposed international inquiry on this issue. U.S. officials reported in early May that they believed the Chinese government had deliberately played down the severity of the outbreak in the early days in order to preserve its image and stockpile medical supplies,” claimed the Angus Reid Institute.
“It would appear that most Canadians share these concerns. The vast majority (85%) disagree with the statement “the Chinese government has been transparent and honest about the COVID-19 situation in that country”. Half (53%) strongly disagree.”
