Analysts believe anxiety over Beijing’s slowing economy is likely driving the Chinese public’s less hawkish attitudes toward the U.S.
Fewer Chinese now see the U.S. as their enemy compared to last year—and vice versa—a new report has suggested.
The report, based on polling by Morning Consult Pro, which compiles data on industry trends, dropped ahead of a long-delayed meeting between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, slated for November 15 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco.
The report paints a different picture than the one published at the end of last year, amid flaring tensions over issues such as China’s military drills following former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, intellectual property, the trade war, and the human rights situations in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
Last year, a whopping two-thirds of Chinese and 64 percent of Americans regarded the other side as an « enemy » or « unfriendly. » Broken down by party lines, 63 percent of Democrats versus 73 percent of Republicans said they felt this way about China.
The 2023 report looked at the overall trajectory of the world’s first and second-largest economies’ attitudes toward each other from April to October.
