World News | Survey: Americans Increasingly See China as a Threat

Beijing, Apr 28 (AP) Americans are increasingly seeing China as a world superpower and a threat, though growing numbers perceive it more as a competitor than an enemy, according to a survey released on Thursday.

The Washington-based Pew Research Centre said that negative views of China reached a new high, with 82 per cent of Americans having either somewhat unfavourable or very unfavourable views of the country, a six percentage point increase from last year.

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About two-thirds of US adults said that China's influence in the world is getting stronger, and two-thirds also consider China's power and influence a major threat to the United States.

At the same time, the proportion of respondents who saw China as an enemy has dropped since January.

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Currently, 62 per cent of Americans see China as a competitor and 25 per cent as an enemy, while in January 54 per cent chose competitor and 35 per cent said enemy — almost exactly the same as the prior year.

The shift may be a temporary one influenced by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Laura Silver, a senior researcher at Pew, said it's likely that the war has changed how people define what is an enemy, as opposed to a competitor.

The survey of 3,581 people was taken from March 21 to 27, about a month into the Russian invasion. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

The opposite shift occurred in the share of Americans who called Russia an enemy. Some 70 per cent of Americans now see Russia as an enemy, up from 41 per cent in January, according to Pew.

“With a clearer sense that what Russia is doing demarcates it as an enemy, there has been a corresponding shift in thinking China is more of a competitor,” Silver said.

On the official level, however, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin calls China the US military's leading long-term challenge and the US-China relationship has become more strained on many levels since the start of President Joe Biden's term in January 2021.

Biden has been placing more emphasis on the Indo-Pacific region and has repeatedly criticised China for military provocations against Taiwan, human rights abuses against ethnic minorities and efforts to squelch pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong.

US officials also have expressed concern about signs that China is increasing the size of its nuclear arsenal, although it remains far smaller than America's.

With China so far refusing to condemn the invasion of Ukraine, Beijing's partnership with Moscow was identified as the most serious problem for the US, with 62 per cent of people polled saying it was.

By contrast, only 35 per cent said the tensions between China and Taiwan were a very serious problem for the US China's human right policies were named a very serious problem by 42 per cent, and 26 per cent said mainland China's Hong Kong policies were a very serious problem for the US.

Silver said that changes in news coverage and global events probably affect how Americans view China, noting that human rights was a greater concern last year.

“Negative views of China have been high and growing for much of the last four years but what factors seem most salient has ebbed and flowed,” Silver said. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)