Australian trust in the United States has hit a record low, while the public mood towards China has warmed for the fourth year in a row, according to a new opinion poll.In an unprecedented shift, 51 per cent of those surveyed said the country’s relationship with China was more important than that with the US, compared with 45 per cent who said America should take priority.Only 31 per cent of those questioned in the Lowy Institute’s annual poll said they trusted the US to act responsibly in the world, a five-point drop compared with last year and a record low.
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGEN
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS100
ENT6
MON · 2026-06-22 · 12:30 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0622-86412
NSR-2026-0622-86412News Report·EN·Diplomatic
Australian public cooling on Trump’s US while thawing on China, survey finds
A new opinion poll from the Lowy Institute reveals a significant shift in Australian public sentiment regarding international relationships. For the first time, a majority of Australians (51%) believe the relationship with China is more important than the one with the United States, with only 45% prioritizing the US.
Orange WangSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-06-22 · 12:30 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
South China Morning PostFIG 01
Reading time
1min
Word count
100words
Sources cited
1cited
Entities identified
6entities
Quality score
100%
§ 01
Briefing Summary
AI-generatedNEWSAR · AI
A new opinion poll from the Lowy Institute reveals a significant shift in Australian public sentiment regarding international relationships. For the first time, a majority of Australians (51%) believe the relationship with China is more important than the one with the United States, with only 45% prioritizing the US. This marks an unprecedented change in public opinion. Concurrently, trust in the United States to act responsibly globally has fallen to a record low of 31%, a five-point decrease from the previous year. Conversely, the public mood towards China has shown a warming trend for the fourth consecutive year.
Confidence 0.85Sources 1Claims 4Entities 6
§ 02
Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
Diplomatic
Political Strategy
Tone
Measured
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.80 / 1.00
Factual
LowHigh
Sources cited
1
Limited
FewMany
§ 03
Key claims
4 extracted01
Only 31% of those questioned trust the US to act responsibly in the world.
statisticLowy Institute's annual poll
Confidence
1.00
02
51% of Australians surveyed believe the relationship with China is more important than with the US.
statisticLowy Institute's annual poll
Confidence
1.00
03
Australian public mood towards China has warmed for the fourth year in a row.
statisticLowy Institute's annual poll
Confidence
1.00
04
Australian trust in the United States has hit a record low.
statisticLowy Institute's annual poll
Confidence
1.00
§ 04
Full report
1 min read · 100 words§ 05
Entities
6 identifiedKey playerOppositionContextPositiveNeutralNegative
Organizations1
Topics1
§ 06
Keywords & salience
10 termsus-china relations
1.00
australian public opinion
1.00
trust in us
0.90
mood towards china
0.90
opinion poll
0.80
lowy institute
0.70
china foreign policy
0.60
us foreign policy
0.60
international relations
0.50
record low
0.40
§ 07
Topic connections
Interactive graph Network visualization showing 51 related topics
View Full Graph Person Organization Location Event|Click node to navigate|Edge numbers = shared articles