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More and more Americans see China as an enemy
Insights from Pew Research Center, The United States Institute of Peace, and The Carter Center
The News
A growing number of Americans see China as an “enemy,” according to a survey by the Pew Research Center that highlights mounting popular antipathy towards the Asian giant even as political relations appear to stabilize.
For the fifth consecutive year, most Americans have an unfavorable view of China, according to Pew. More than 80% of US adults view the nation unfavorably, including 43% who classified their views as “very unfavorable.”
Just 6% of Americans see China as a partner to the US, while 50% called it a competitor and 42% an enemy, compared with just a quarter two years ago.
Republican voters and right-leaning independents are about twice as likely as their liberal counterparts to hold a very unfavorable view of China and to classify the nation as an enemy of the US. Older Americans are also more critical of China; 61% of adults age 65 and older hold a very unfavorable view.
SIGNALS
Americans blame China for economic woes in possible boost for Trump
About two thirds of Americans think China has a great deal or a fair amount of negative influence on the US economy, Pew found, and Americans who say the US’s economic situation is bad are more likely to hold an unfavorable opinion of China.
As US trade with China has ballooned, US consumers have benefited from cheaper goods. But at the same time, competition over imports has led to US manufacturing workers losing their jobs. And in areas of the country particularly harmed by competition with China, political polarization has increased. Some experts argue that the “China shock” helped Donald Trump rise to power in 2016 — raising the question of whether a growing negative sentiment towards the country could boost his candidacy in this year’s elections.
Despite unfavorable views from public, US-China relations are stabilizing
Despite the survey’s findings, China-US relations are slowly stabilizing, experts say. “The relationship is becoming slightly more stable, even though fundamentally it remains a struggle,” a Harvard University government professor told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia this week. The US has recently taken steps to increase dialogue with China; Last month, presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden talked on the phone for the first time in two years, and both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited the nation.
The good news, according to China researchers at the United States Institute of Peace, is that these recent visits show that “both sides sincerely seem to want a more stable bilateral relationship.” The bad news? Each side wants the other to take the first step.
It goes both ways: most Chinese hold negative view of US
A 2021 poll conducted by The Carter Center’s US-China Perception Monitor found that most people in China have a negative view of the US, with 62% reporting an unfavorable or unfavorable view versus 37% who held a positive view.
The Carter Center also found that most Chinese people (78%) think China is internationally viewed favorably or very favorably, suggesting a significant gap in perception. Experts pointed out that the discrepancy is noteworthy: “It’s important that those of us in ‘the West’ don’t assume that the world shares our narrative on Beijing,” said Jude Blanchette of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
