More than half of surveyed Americans view China — the nation’s chief “strategic and economic rival” for years to come — in an unfavorable light, a Gallup poll said.
The pollsters said 53 percent of Americans see the Asian nation very or mostly unfavorably, while 43 percent hold a very or mostly favorable opinion of it.
Gallup first asked the question in 1979, when China’s gross domestic product was one-tenth of the United States’ and 64 percent of Americans viewed the nation favorably.
Viewpoints of China fluctuated until the televised crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in June 1989, causing favorability ratings among Americans to drop to 34 percent later that year, Gallup said.
Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the country’s favorable rating has see-sawed between 41 percent and 48 percent.
Americans surveyed by Gallup could not agree about who is the world’s economic superpower.
The majority of Americans (52 percent) say it’s China, even though the United States’ GPD is still almost twice as large. About one third (31 percent) say it’s the United States, while 16 percent cite Japan, India, Russia or the European Union.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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