December 11, 2007	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 30, 1428

WASHINGTON, Dec 10: Americans view China’s growing economic and military power as a serious threat while the Chinese feel the United States is trying to prevent them from becoming a top world power, a survey showed on Monday.

But a majority of Americans and Chinese have a favourable impression of each other’s countries, reflecting a paradox of “hope and fear,” said the Committee of 100, a US-based Chinese American group which commissioned the poll.

Conducted in August and September in the United States and China, the group called the survey unprecedented as it covered a broad range of key bilateral issues, including trade, jobs, product safety, regional security, environment, human rights and foreign policy.

A majority of those surveyed in the United States had a favourable impression of China with 72 per cent believing that bilateral trade benefited the US economy and consumers.

Yet, 75 per cent felt China’s emergence as a military power posed a serious or potential threat to the United States and 65 per cent believed China was an economic threat. Three-in-four Americans said they believed China was responsible for a loss of US jobs.

On the Chinese side, wide majorities — 60 per cent of the general public, 86 percent of opinion leaders and 94 per cent of business leaders — had a favourable view of the United States.

Also, 83 per cent of Chinese believed that trade with the United States benefited the Chinese economy.

However, nearly half of all Chinese respondents feel that the United States is attempting to block China from becoming a great power.

Many in the United States are concerned about the military, economic and environmental implications of China’s rapid growth,” said Cheng Li, an expert at Washington-based Brookings Institution, analyzing the survey’s findings.

On the other hand, he said, many people in China jumped to the conclusion that if the United States was concerned about such rapid growth, then it would attempt to keep China down.

I believe that this is a grave misunderstanding by the Chinese,” Cheng Li said, pointing as an example the overwhelming majority of Americans welcoming China playing a more important role in the international stage.

He said American and Chinese policy makers and upcoming leaders faced a “real challenge” in developing an “accurate understanding” of public opinion not only of those held by their people but also those of their counterparts.

With jobs and the economy ranking as an urgent issue in the United States, competition from China is expected to be a critical topic in the run up to the 2008 presidential elections, experts said.

“It will be a battle in the election campaign between frequency and intensity,” said John Zogby, the chief executive of polling firm Zogby International, which conducted the study in the United States.

“Frequency in the sense that Americans have goodwill towards China and towards the Chinese, towards Chinese products etcetera but the intensity is among those who feel that China is responsible for a loss of jobs and cannot be trusted and this is what the campaign will be waged about,” he said.

He likened it very much to the raging immigration issue in the United States, “where frequency on one end, Americans like to be fair but on the other hand, intensity towards those who would turn it into a negative issue.”

—AFP