Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T11:14:37.015Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interests, Values, and Geopolitics: The Global Public Opinion on China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2015

Liu Kang
Liu Kang*
Affiliation:
Institute of Arts and Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and Duke University, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The essay discusses the public opinion surveys on the rise of China in the United States, Asia and Latin America since 2010, conducted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Duke University’s collaborative research team headed by the author. It examines the world public recognition of China’s growing influence, their attitudes toward China’s influence, and reactions to the ‘China Model’ and impressions of China’s political, economic, social, and cultural development. These assessments of China’s domestic issues or internal behavior show not only the amount of information and knowledge that the people in various countries know about China, but the intrinsic value judgments and ideological biases that influence their perceptions of China. The essay argues that the rise of China is a complicated phenomenon with a multifarious nature, including material dimensions, such as military power, economic development, and technological innovation, as well as ideational dimensions, such as perception, understanding, or prejudice. Public opinion, attitudes and perceptions of China’s rise are the outcome of dynamic interactions and assemblage of factors, a synergy of material interests, ideational and emotional reactions, and values, ideologies, principles, unraveling themselves against a highly volatile, precarious and contentious geopolitical backdrop, in which the interests of nation-states and individuals became all intertwined and inseparable.

Type
The Image of China in the West
Information
European Review , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 242 - 260
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Jacobs, A. (2009) China hunts for art treasures in U.S. museums. New York Times December 17.Google Scholar
2.Bremmer, I. (2013) China’s limited influence. New York Times November 27, Op-Ed section.Google Scholar
3.Pew Research Global Attitudes Project (2010) America’s Global Image Remains More Positive than China’s. July 18, http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/07/18/americas-global-image-remains-more-positive-than-chinas/; Committee of 100 (2012) U.S.–China Public Perceptions – Opinion Survey 2012 http://www.survey.committee100.org; Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ 2010 public opinion survey (2010) http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/files/About_Us/Press_Releases/FY11_Releases/110118.aspx; BBC World Service Poll (2013) Views of China and India Slide in Global Poll, While UK’s Ratings Climb, In: GlobeScan and Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) (2013) May 22 http://www.globescan.com/news-and-analysis/press-releases/press-releases-2013/277-views-of-china-and-india-slide-while-uks-ratings-climb.html; The Genron NPO and China Daily (2013) ‘The 9th Japan-China Public Opinion Poll,’ August 13. http://www.genron-npo.net/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59:the-9th-japan-china-public-opinion-poll&catid=2:research&Itemid=4Google Scholar
4.Ng, D. (2012) Foreword to committee of 100 ‘U.S.-China Public Perceptions – Opinion Survey 2012’, http://www.survey.committee100.orgGoogle Scholar
5.Pew Research Global Attitudes Project (2010) America’s global image remains more positive than China’s. July 18, http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/07/18/americas-global-image-remains-more-positive-than-chinas/Google Scholar
6.Holsti, O. R. (1992) Public opinion and foreign policy: challenges to the Almond-Lippmann consensus Mershon series: research programs and debates. International Studies Quarterly, 36, pp. 439–466; M. Finnemore and K. Sikkink (2001) Taking stock: the constructivist research program in international relations and comparative politics. Annual Review of Political Science, 4, pp. 391–416.Google Scholar
7.One of the most vocal hawkish Chinese academic in international relations is Yan Xuetong, who claims ‘China’s quest to enhance its world leadership status and America’s effort to maintain its present position is a zero-sum game.’ Yan Xuetong (2011) How China can defeat America. New York Times November 20, Op-ed section. For a critical commentary see L. J. Goldstein (2011) Domestic politics and the U.S.-China rivalry. In: S. Ganguly and W. R. Thompson (eds), Asian Rivalries: Conflict, Escalation, and Limitations of Two-Level Games (Stanford: Stanford University Press), p. 57.Google Scholar
8.http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57518776-503544.htmlGoogle Scholar
9.This confirms Page and Xie’s findings based on American public opinion surveys collected in the early 2000s. Page, B. I. and Xie, T. (2010) Living with the Dragon: How the American Public Views the Rise of China (New York: Columbia University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.The US–China Security Perceptions Survey (2013) jointly conducted by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and China Strategic Culture Promotion Association, a Chinese army-based think-tank, combined focus-group interviews and survey among the urbanites in both the US and China, to measure the perception of mutual trust and security. It concludes that the strategic trust between the United States and China is low but only small minorities of all respondents in both countries saw the other country as an enemy. http://www.carnegieendowment.org/pubsGoogle Scholar
11.Welsh, B. and Chang, A. (2014) Choosing China: public perceptions of ‘China as a model’. Journal of Contemporary China, forthcoming Special Issue, Asian and American Views of China Rise.Google Scholar
12.Moore, M. (2009) China's 'next leader' in hardline rant. Telegraph February 16.Google Scholar
13.Shambaugh, D. (2008) China’s new foray into Latin America. YaleGlobal, November 17 http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/china%E2%80%99s-new-foray-latin-americaGoogle Scholar
14.Ellis, R. E. (2009) China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner), p. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.BBC World Service (2009) Hosting the Olympics appears to have done little for China's image’, February 6. BBC and GlobeScan Survey show that in 2008 China’s positive rating was 45%, negative 33%, but in 2009 the positive rating was down to 39% and negative up to 40%. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7873050.stmGoogle Scholar
16.Zoellick, R. (2013) Beijing must pull off a mix of Mao and markets. Financial Times December 1, Op-Ed Section.Google Scholar
17.China Daily (2013) Xi vows to press ahead with ‘Chinese dream’. March 13.Google Scholar
18.Kang, Liu (2012) Searching for a new cultural identity: China's soft power and media culture today. Journal of Contemporary China, 21, pp. 915–931.Google Scholar
19.Lieberthal, K. and Jisi, Wang (2012) Addressing U.S.-China Strategic Distrust. Brookings Institution John L. Thornton China Center Monograph Series, Number 4, March.Google Scholar