For the fifth year in a row, about eight out of 10 Americans have unfavorable views of China, with many saying limiting Beijing’s power is a top priority, according to a public opinion survey released Wednesday.
According to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, 81% of Americans have an unfavorable view of China, including 43% who hold a very unfavorable view of the country.
“Views of China across all Americans remain critical — pretty negative,” Pew research associate Christine Huang told VOA.
“China is becoming an increasingly powerful player on the international stage, and so it’s important for us to track how Americans and people around the world view China and its actions, and to see how public opinion will shape or not affect foreign policy of countries,” Huang added.
Political ideology and age were found to have a distinct impact on people’s perception of China.
“Not all Americans see China equally negatively. Some groups stand out for having especially negative views of China,” Huang said.
Republicans are far more likely to hold negative views of China than Democrats are, according to Pew. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are about twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents to hold a very unfavorable view of China and to consider China an enemy of the U.S., the report said.
Conservative Republicans are more likely than moderate or liberal Republicans to hold negative views of China and view Beijing as an enemy. Meanwhile, older people are also more likely to be wary of China, with Americans over the age of 65 tending to hold more unfavorable views of Beijing.
Pew doesn’t look into why most Americans have negative views of China, but the study does examine perceptions of Chinese influence, according to Huang.
“Most people in America, for example, think that China’s power and influence has gotten stronger in recent years,” Huang said. “So there is a connection between the sense that it’s becoming more powerful and being more negative towards the country.”
Those views are particularly clear when it comes to considering China’s economic influence on the United States. More than 80% of Americans think China has at least a fair amount of influence on U.S. economic conditions, the report said.
Of the people who think Beijing has at least some influence on the U.S. economy, 79% think that influence is negative, compared to just 18% who think it’s positive, according to Pew.
Something that stood out in this year’s study, according to Huang, is American concern over China’s territorial disputes. Beijing has laid claim to large swathes of the South China Sea, for instance, despite strong pushback from countries like Vietnam and the Philippines.
About six out of 10 Americans, or 61%, say they are at least somewhat concerned about territorial disputes between China and its neighbors, including 20% who say they are very concerned, the report found.
“Americans are looking beyond just the immediate impact to themselves,” Huang said.
