Chinese people growing warmer towards the US: Survey

Beijing (China)—The Chinese people view the United States far more favorably than five years ago, according to a survey by the Shanghai-based Horizon Group.
The survey, which has involved collecting the opinions of the same 3,167 people aged 18 to 60 in ten major cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai, each year for the last six years, showed that in 2006, 55 percent of the respondents liked the United States “very much” or just said they liked the country.
The Chinese opinion of the United States slumped to its lowest level during the survey in 2003 when an overall rating of 2.19 was recorded on a scale of one to four (four indicates the most favorable opinion).
But this year, the figure is 2.79, easily surpassing the previous high of 2.36 in 2001.
The ups and downs are usually influenced by key issues and major disputes in the Sino-U.S. economic, trade, political and diplomatic relations at the time, Horizon said.
The favorable turn this year is the result of strategic dialogue, high-level exchanges and enhanced cooperation in recent years, the report said.
The survey also found that more than half of the respondents regarded the United States as the most important country for China’s economic development.
And the United States is China’s closest partner in national security in the eyes of one fifth of the respondents.
However, an in-depth survey of 611 people including experts, entrepreneurs, journalists, returned overseas students and undergraduates, also conducted by the Horizon Group, showed that 64 percent of the respondents used both the words “cooperation” and “tension” to describe how Sino-U.S. relations would unfold over the next five to ten years.

—The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item