Hong Kong News Network, August 11--"The crumbling 'key pillars and cornerstones '." South Korea's "Central Daily" website reported on the 10th that the latest opinion poll showed that the trust of the United States in the two "core allies" in Asia, South Korea and Japan, was shaken at the same time, and the proportion of respondents who said they "do not trust the United States" exceeded those who "trust the United States.

The American flag. Photograph: Archives of Hong Kong China News Service

According to the Global Times, a joint survey conducted by the Korea Joongang Ilbo and the Korea East Asia Institute showed that when asked "Is the United States a trustworthy partner?", 46.4 percent of South Korean respondents answered "trustworthy" while 45.4 percent answered "trustworthy". Although the gap is within the margin of error, this is the first time that the proportion of "distrust" has exceeded the proportion of "trust" since the East Asia Institute began the survey in 2017.

Japan is showing a similar trend. According to a survey conducted by the Korea Institute of East Asian Studies and the Japan International Cultural Center, the proportion of Japanese respondents who answered "do not trust" the United States (47%) was 12.3 percentage points higher than the proportion who answered "trustworthy" (34.7). According to South Korea's "Joongang Ilbo" based on these data alone, the Japanese have a deeper distrust of the United States than South Koreans.

The report pointed out that for a long time, the United States has always regarded the South Korea US alliance as the "key pillar" of Northeast Asia and the US Japan alliance as the "cornerstone". At the same time, the trust of the United States in these two key allies is also declining. This phenomenon has attracted attention because the proportion of South Korean respondents who have a "favorable opinion" of the United States as a whole has plummeted from 72.8 percent last year to 47.5 percent this year. In other words, the public's negative sentiment toward the United States is not limited to personal antipathy toward its rulers, but extends to their perception of the United States as a nation. According to the poll, only 17.8 percent of South Korean respondents think the relationship between South Korea and the United States is "good", while 27 percent think the relationship is "bad".

South Korea's "Joongang Daily" pointed out that the changes in South Korea and Japan are similar to the trends seen in Europe this year. A survey of 15 European countries released in June by the European Council on Foreign Relations showed that only one in 10 respondents considered the United States to be an ally.