Most China Urban Residents Optimistic About US Passing PNTRChinese urban residents hold strong confidence that the US Congress will grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status, and there are as many as 80% believe that the US the bill will be passed, according to a survey by a market research group in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.Among the 480 people surveyed, 71.7% were aware that the US Congress will hold debates on China's PNTR status. Residents of Beijing were the most politically informed-80.4% of them knew about the PNTR debates. As for whether the US Congress will pass the bill, 79.4% of those interviewed held positive outlooks. 15.7% felt "it is hard to say" and 4.9% are worried that the passage of the bill "might not be possible" or "will be definitely impossible." Shanghai residents held most positive attitude regarding the passage of the PNTR bill, with 88.5% believing it will pass. As for the reasons they believe the U.S. Congress will pass the bill, 36.7% believed that the passage will be win-win for both countries, and 33.5% felt that Americans will benefit significantly from it. Those who are worried that the bill might not pass based their concerns on politics, human rights issues, and Taiwan. As for some Americans' using human rights and labor issues to block China from joining the WTO, 72.6% called it "unreasonable" or "not very reasonable." The largest such group was found in Guangzhou-74.8%. |
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