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Majority of Americans Favor Good Ties With China, Survey Shows
A majority of Americans agree that China is not an "adversary" to the United States and it is important for the two countries to maintain good relations despite fierce bickering in the past months, according to a nation-wide poll released Monday in Washington.
A telephone survey of 1,468 people, conducted May 15-28 by the Pew Research Center, shows that public alarm about China has not increased in spite of the recent rise of tension in bilateral relations over the EP-3 spy plane incident and boosted U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
The survey also points to the fact that a majority of Americans are opposed to any U.S. commitment to defending Taiwan, despite President Bush's recent remarks that the United States should do " whatever it took" to help defense the island if China were to use force against it.
The proportion against U.S. military involvement in Taiwan at this time, as the poll shows, stands at 64 percent, 11 percentage points up from the polling in March 2000, while the proportion supporting U.S. commitment to defending Taiwan goes down to 26 percent from the 31 percent in March 2000.
More than half in the survey cast doubt about U.S. policies aimed at making a difference in China, and instead 59 percent of the people consider that maintaining good relations with the world 's most populous nation is more important than promoting democracy and human rights there.
According to the poll, more than half of both Republicans (51 percent) and Democrats (53 percent) say that China is a "serious problem but not a adversary," and only one out of five in the survey think of China as an "adversary."
The survey shows that 48 percent of the people regard relations between the United States and China are "staying about the same," while 40 percent see that relations as "getting worse."
Even though quite a few people recognize relations between the two countries have deteriorated, the proportion who see China's emergence as a world power as a threat to the United States has not climbed up over the past two years.
"More Americans identify many other threats, both traditional and new, as major threats, including Saddam Hussein's continued rule in Iraq, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, new missile threats, international terrorism, global environmental problems, and the rapid spread of infectious diseases," said Morton H. Halperin, a senior research fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Responses to other questions reinforce the view that the president is likely to meet with significant skepticism from the public if he adopts the advice of some of his advisers and paints China as the primary enemy of the United States," Halperin said.
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