Sentiment towards Asia warms amid declining trust in US

The Palace Museum in Beijing, China

Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen

A new report shows that New Zealanders are more likely to see China as a friend than the United States for the first time in a decade.

The annual Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples (2026) survey, launched by the Asia New Zealand Foundation on Wednesday, found that New Zealanders' sentiment towards China has warmed since the last survey, with friend perceptions increasing from 38 percent to 43 percent.

At the same time, sentiment towards the United States has cooled significantly, with friend perceptions falling from 61 percent to 39 percent.

It also shows that New Zealanders continue to see Japan as New Zealand's closest friend in Asia, a result that has remained unchanged since the question was first asked in 2017.

Singapore, the Philippines and South Korea were perceived as being New Zealand's next closest friends, the report said.

"In a more challenging world, New Zealanders are looking for friends," a summary of the report said.

"Trust in regional powers such as Japan, India, Indonesia, China and Australia has increased, while trust in the United States continues to fall."

David Capie, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies and professor of international relations at Victoria University of Wellington, said the results were not surprising.

"Looking at the period where this polling took place, it coincided with the attack on Venezuela [by the US]," he said.

"I think there's kind of the peak moment of talking about seizing Greenland, and Canada [being] the 51st state."

Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima Island, Japan

Photo: RNZ / Poppy Granger

Asia connections

Asia continues to be seen as important to New Zealand's future across political, economic, social, technological and cultural dimensions.

Eighty-one percent of New Zealanders believe that developing ties with the peoples and countries of Asia is important, with 39 percent saying it is very important, according to the report.

While North Asia remained the sub-region most widely seen as critical to New Zealand's future, New Zealanders were increasingly recognising the importance of South Asia, which includes India, Pakistan and Nepal.

However, despite the rising awareness, self-reported knowledge of South Asia continues to lag well behind that of other Asian sub-regions, the report said.

New Zealanders were also feeling more connected to Asia than ever with food, travel and entertainment as key avenues for engagement, according to Julia Macdonald, the foundation's director of research.

"Last year, Asia was New Zealand's most visited world region outside of Australia and the South Pacific," she said.

"Travels to the region increased 14 percent over the year prior. China was the top destination, followed by India, Indonesia and Japan," she said.

"Travels to China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Japan all increased 20 percent," she said.

"By comparison, travels to the US and also to Europe dropped."

When asked where people want to go for their overseas experience, Asia came the second behind only Europe, with 20 percent selecting it as their preferred destination.

New Zealanders voted Squid Game as the top TV show in the survey.

Photo: Netflix

'Soft' power

Emeritus professor Paul Spoonley said the growing interest in food and travel and other "soft areas" in Asia was also a reflection of the growing significance of Asian communities in New Zealand.

"Contact becomes important and that's why you get the metropolitan centers having much higher levels of knowledge about and contact with Asian New Zealanders because that's where the Asian populations are," he said.

Apart from food and travel, New Zealanders are also showing interest in sport and entertainment in Asia.

Fourteen percent of respondents said they followed sports in Asia, with cricket being the most popular sport, followed in a distant second by football and then rugby, Macdonald said.

Just over a third of New Zealanders say they consume Asia-related entertainment monthly, in line with last year's results, with younger New Zealanders consume more frequently than older generations.

"Movies were clearly the most popular form of entertainment, followed by TV shows and then music," Macdonald said, adding that these produced in Japan and South Korea took the lead.

Parasite was cited as the top movie and Squid Game the top TV show, she said, noting that both were South Korean.

Overall, 60 percent of New Zealanders now say they feel connected to Asian cultures in their daily lives, an increase of 4 percent from last year.

The Waitākere Indian Association marked 25 years of Diwali celebrations in 2025.

Photo: Supplied

Migration benefits

Japan continues to be seen as New Zealand's closest friend in Asia, closest defence and security partner, and most trusted power in Asia, surpassing New Zealanders' trust in the United Kingdom for the first time.

Singapore was the next most trusted power in Asia and was seen as the Asian country most like-minded to New Zealand, according to the report.

While South Korea and China were joint third as a defence and security partner, Capie warned people to be careful in interpreting that.

"I'm not sure that there's a clear separation from who New Zealanders think is an ideal security and defense partner and just a general feeling of warmth towards that country or the importance of that country," he said.

Suzannah Jessep, chief executive of the foundation, said respondents could have ranked Japan and Singapore highly due to high trust levels and a sense of like-mindedness.

"For China, it might be just real like the importance of engaging, the importance of being connected and the importance of understanding each other," she said.

More than half of New Zealanders thought immigration from Asia to New Zealand was positive, Macdonald said.

"This is down four percentage points from last year," she said.

"But if you look over the past 10 years, only 40 percent felt immigration would have a positive impact a decade ago, so we've increased 12 percentage points positively since that time."

When asked about some of the anti-immigration sentiment, Spoonley said more support was needed to help new migrants settle.

He said there also needed to be more engagement and education to people who were anxious about migration about "how significant immigration is and how positive it is".

Spoonley also said the trend of New Zealanders' attitude towards Asia and issues concerning Asia were moving in a positive direction.

"I think it's fascinating that it's not that Asia is out there as a trade partner or as somebody who is a friend or a foe," he said.

"But, actually, Asia is now increasingly here in New Zealand, and you can see that in terms of our interest in sport, in terms of the importance of food ... and the importance of media, and, of course, the importance of travel and the confidence that New Zealanders are showing in terms of that connection with things Asian here where they live."

Now in its 29th year, the report presents the results from a survey of 2300 New Zealanders aged 15 years and over, conducted between 21 January and 18 February.