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Bipartisan majorities of Americans favor more tariffs on Chinese goods and believe that the United States needs to step up preparations for military threats from the country, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey.
The two-day poll, which concluded on Tuesday, revealed deep worries among Americans about China’s global influence at a time when U.S.-China relations have fallen to their lowest point in decades.
Some 66 percent of respondents said they were more likely to back a candidate in the 2024 presidential election who “supports additional tariffs on Chinese imports.”
Another 66 percent of respondents—including 58 percent of Democrats and 81 percent of Republicans—agreed with a statement that the United States “needs to do more to prepare for military threats from China.”
Still, just 38 percent of Americans supported the possible deployment of U.S. troops to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, showing the political constraints facing any president seeking U.S. military involvement in a conflict involving China.
The bipartisan concern about China helps explain the increasingly combative stances Republican presidential candidates have taken toward the world’s second-largest economy.
