Study on US and China Relations

On Monday the Committee of 100, a non-profit, non-partisan organization made up of Chinese American leaders and professionals, unveiled the results of their latest survey - Hope and Fear: American and Chinese Attitudes Toward Each Other. Among the notable findings 62 percent of Chinese surveyed held a favorable view of the United States while 52 percent of Americans held a favorable view of China. Even among US Congressional staffers, the favorability of China has increased from 19 percent in 2005 to 35 percent today.

A good thing. I think the low rating among staffers is explained by their complete and utter lack of understanding of all things China. In my limited experience with staffers last April, most couldn't tell you what hemisphere China is in.

"The reason the general public doesn't feel as threatened is because the elite's feel more acutely the nature of these relationships and the need to maintain their own status. If you work on the assembly line of a plant it doesn't matter much who the owner is - if you're a businessperson who buys and sells plants and wants to expand globally then it very much matters who owns the plant - you or someone else."

This seems a bit patronizing. I'd say that we sink too much meaning into the term "elite". Not to disappoint or shock anyone, but the majority of the politicians I've had contact with have been exceptionally disappointing. An average Joe from the "heartland of America" as the press and other elite condescendingly refer to middle Americans or "those people not like us" tends to be far more intelligent that the average pol.

The sharper, more enterprising "elite" businessmen tend to see China as an opportunity to reach and additional 1.3 billion customers. Generally this is accompanied by an understanding that cultural differences and market barriers make those 1.3 billion consumers more difficult to reach than in US markets, but an opportunity none the less.

As bilateral relations ranked as a top priority to the majority of those surveyed, the Chinese ranked the US as their most important foreign country to partner with while the US respondents ranked China third behind Britain and Japan.

Trade and economic interaction was emphasized as 72 percent of the US public agree that trade with China benefits the US compared with 27 percent that thinks it does not. In China the numbers were more striking - 82 percent believe trade with the US benefits China and a mere 7 percent thinks the opposite.

"That's important because the survey we conducted was done between August and early September, and that was the time the media concentrated on China for food product safety," co-chair of C100's Research Committee, Cheng Li, said.

One member of the Committee of 100 suggested sending a copy of the study to presidential hopefuls. He's assuming they'd read it - a leap of faith. China bashing is popular during election cycles. Politicians need a villain to explain the inequities in life. Same thing as Saudi, Iran and Co., villainizing Israel only less acute. China definitely has its issues, but politicians seem to pick the ancillary ones and them dumb them down further.

Indeed product safety has had an impact on consumers' minds in 2007. Sixty-eight percent of American respondents said concerns over products reduced their confidence in buying the "Made in China" label while 44 percent of the Chinese surveyed said they were concerned over domestic products. Cheng also highlighted another glaring negative found from the survey.

True enough.

"At the same time there are some fears, and the numbers actually increased - 75 percent of Americans believe China is or will be a military threat to the US. Sixty-five percent of Americans believe that China's economic rise can or already is a threat to the US. How to reconcile this paradox is a challenge to all China analysts," Cheng said.

I'm certainly no expert here. The Chinese (both the individuals and the government) seem a bit French in their aggression. On the street, the Chinese argue and squabble and push, but you'd never see one person actually hit another person. They are similarly distinguished of late on a national scale. The Chinese performance in their tangle with the Japanese in WWII was less than formidable. Since then, China whines and complains and plays victim on an international scale and the only counter-indication of this generally pacifist behavior has been the extreme brutality on the part of the country's leadership against its own people.

Both countries showed disappointment for their government's handling of environmental issues, although the Chinese were far less critical of either government's overall performance. Eighty-eight percent of the Chinese surveyed said their nation is headed in the right direction while just 34 percent of Americans expressed faith in their country's current track. That factor comes as great hopes for China as the 2008 Olympics year coincides with the forthcoming US presidential election, and concerns over the Iraq war, which Americans listed as the nation's most pressing issue.

This might be partially explained by the coverage of the two governments. Read almost any Chinese rag and you'll learn how much the Chinese government is doing to combat environmental pollution. The fact that the article bears no resemblance to reality is of no consequence. On the other hand, the press in the States has bought off on global warming hook, line and sinker and loves to remind its audience that it is all the fault of the Bush Administration.

The speakers all brought up the role media plays in influencing each people's views of the other and the theory that not enough objective first-hand accounts have been presented to either side. Fugh called for a more positive portrayal of either side.

"The media has a very important responsibility - in the end is it better for China and the US to be at loggerheads, whether it's military threat or economic threat, or is it better to cooperate in all different areas, whether it's the environment, counterterrorism, energy resources," Fugh said.

Better because reporters don't have to understand the complexities behind the issues.

The poll was conducted by Zogby International through 1,200 telephone interviews within the US and correspondence with members of Congress and top-level business executives (all randomly selected).

In China Horizon Research Consultancy Group met with 4,104 Chinese adults face-to-face in 21 locations country-wide to collect their sampling. Victor Yuan, chairman and president of Horizon, said his firm's participation in the survey was breaking new ground for comparing other countries to China.

"We are trying to develop a consistent mirror study between China and another country. i.e. China and Japan, China and Russia, China and Germany, China and Italy, China and India - 16 countries in total. We want to develop a Chinese global vision and we're not necessarily saying it's right, but when you gather results you encourage people to have some reflection.