China Warms to America in New Poll

Fewer Chinese see the U.S. as their enemy compared with half a year ago—and vice versa—a new report suggests.

The report, based on polling by Morning Consult, which compiles data on industry trends, dropped ahead of a long-delayed meeting between U.S. 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 Taiwan, intellectual property, the trade war, and the human rights situations in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang region.

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 first and second-largest economies' attitudes toward each other from April to October.

During those six months, the proportion of Chinese and Americans who consider the other country an enemy fell 9 and 4 percent, respectively.

Among Democratic Party voters, there was a 10 percent drop, while 3 percent fewer GOP voters felt this way compared to six months prior.

Meanwhile, the proportion of people concerned about military tensions between Washington and Beijing was up 1 percent in China but down 2 percent in the U.S. Here Republicans were even less concerned (down 7 percent from April) than their Democrat counterparts (down 2 percent).

The study's analysts attributed the Chinese survey participants' apparently rosier view as "likely driven more by public anxiety over the country's ailing economy than by a political about-face."

Instead of roaring back after Beijing lifted its stringent pandemic-era restrictions, the Chinese economy is facing headwinds.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday projected 5.4 percent GDP growth for the country this year and 4.6 percent for 2024—down from 8.1 percent in 2021. China is also facing a property market crisis, an aging labor force and plummeting foreign direct investment, with Q3 marking the lowest quarterly FDI inflow in 25 years.

Analysts predicted the mellower outlook would be short-lived in view of the fast-approaching American presidential election, when candidates are likely to try to outdo each other in appearing tough on China.

The more positive note struck by recent polling echoes that of Chinese leaders as they eye the San Francisco summit, which will be Xi's first face-to-face meeting with Biden in a year.

Both Washington and Beijing have stressed the importance of cooperation on major challenges like climate change. U.S. officials hope the Biden-Xi meeting will at least prompt China to resume communication with the Pentagon. China's military leadership severed these ties following former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which the U.S. says raises the risk of a dangerous miscalculation.

The past few months have also seen a flurry of high-level exchanges of senior officials.

Last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi traveled to Washington in what was seen as a prelude to Xi's arrival.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken made trips to China earlier this year.

California Governor Gavin Newsom's weeklong China visit late last month was warmly received by officials there.

On Friday, House Republicans on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party published an open letter to Biden in which they accused him of sidelining national values and interests in the efforts to "get [China] to the table.

The letter pointed out the administration had gone two years without sanctioning a Chinese official involved in the "erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy" and human rights violations in Xinjiang.

The lawmakers said the White House has also not done enough in boosting U.S. tech competitiveness relative to China, pressuring Beijing to keep fentanyl precursors from being shipped to North America, and reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

Biden is seen as needing to stress to Xi that altering its behavior on these issues is only the beginning if China truly seeks to improve its relationship with the U.S.

This year's analysis is based on surveys carried out on a monthly basis in China and the U.S. among representative samples of approximately 1,000 adults. The polls had unweighted margins of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The 2022 surveys were conducted from November 2-3 and November 2-6 in the U.S. and China, respectively, among the same number of adults and with the same margins of error.