American Anxieties About China Grow Slightly, Survey Finds
American perceptions of China continued to lose ground in the past year, although only slightly, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center released Monday.
China’s favorable rating slipped from 37 percent to 35 percent, showing a deepening skepticism in the United States toward the country, America’s main economic and strategic competitor. In a 2011 Pew survey, 51 percent of Americans polled said they viewed China in a positive light.
In the latest figures, more than two-thirds of Americans surveyed said they feared that territorial disputes between China and its neighbors — Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines — could lead to conflict.
That anxiety about possible armed clashes, combined with nervousness about China’s economic success, added to the American disfavor toward China, Bruce Stokes, the director of Pew’s Global Economic Attitudes project, said in Washington.
The increasingly negative attitudes toward China among Americans reflect the growing difficulties in the relationship between the two governments, said Paul Haenle, a former director of China at the National Security Council, and director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing.
For a number of years, Beijing and Washington tried to stress common interests while keeping “hedging strategies” — such as military competition — in the background, Mr. Haenle said. But that is changing, he said, as concern grows over territorial issues between China and some of its neighbors, China’s naval modernization and economic problems in the United States.
American anxieties about China’s economic growth were exacerbated by uncertainties about the economy at home. “Because we don’t have our own economic house in order, that creates anxiety about what the rest of the world is doing and, in particular, what China is doing,” he said. “The leaders have not been good at convincing their people that this relationship is good for both sides.”
The unease between the two governments was on display at the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing last week, a conference held almost entirely behind closed doors by official delegations that was supposed to demonstrate shared interests.
There was certainly no accord on how to handle the territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas that unsettled the respondents in the Pew survey. Secretary of State John Kerry, for example, asked China to refrain from making new claims in the nearby seas, but received no assurances, senior American officials said.
In this year’s Pew survey, 48,643 people over the age of 18 were interviewed in 44 countries from March 17 to June 5. Among the findings:
- Across 43 nations, a median of 49 percent expressed a favorable opinion of China, while 32 percent offered an unfavorable opinion.
- Among Americans, unfavorable ratings of China were more common among Republicans (65 percent) than among Democrats (53 percent) or independents (51 percent).
- China’s economic growth is viewed favorably in Asia. “The prevailing view is that Chinese growth helps others in the region,” the survey said, with majorities in Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea and Indonesia saying China’s economic expansion benefited their own country. Even in Japan, where overall ratings for China, its traditional rival, are in the single digits, 47 percent believe that China’s economic growth is beneficial.
- China’s president, Xi Jinping, who has made a strong impression at home with his war on corruption and his firm stance against Japan, has yet to make his mark abroad.
Of course, with no public polling in China, it is impossible to say how Mr. Xi’s negative/positive ratings among his own constituents compare with his standing abroad. But as for his appeal overseas, the Pew survey said: “Over all, ratings for Xi are more negative than positive, while at the same time many are unfamiliar with the Chinese leader.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments always welcome!