Perceptions of China around the world are growing increasingly negative. Not surprisingly, public opinion in the U.S. has plummeted and although Europe seems more divided on the issue, it’s safe to say that the likes of Macron, Johnson, and Merkel are hesitant at best about deepening their ties. 

Here in Asia, views are far more extreme. Last week’s provocative incursion by a Chinese coast guard vessel into Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone has sparked a furious reaction in Jakarta and was presented as yet another example of Beijing’s increasingly assertive foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific theater.