China saw a significant surge in popularity among respondents, with 50.5 per cent indicating that the Asian giant is their preferred choice of alignment compared with the US, up from 38.9 per cent a year earlier.
Conversely, the US saw a drop in popularity from 61.1 per cent last year to 49.5 per cent in the latest study.
China’s influence in the region was expected to “grow in the years to come if there is no balancer in the region”, said Sharon Seah, a senior fellow and coordinator of Asean studies at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
“However, China’s ‘popularity’ is not matched…
