Infographic: GT

The world is paying high attention to the tensions and competition between China and the US, and according to the latest survey from the Global Times poll center, more than 85 Chinese participants are being “angry and resist firmly” or “complain and object explicitly” to the US global hegemony, but 40.8 percent American participants choose “have no choice but to accept” when being asked about their attitude toward China’s rise globally.

The poll gathered 16,431 responses from 16 countries, including China, the US, the UK, France, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Japan, India and South Africa from October 23 and 30. Most participants, 52.2 percent, have high education background and 47.5 percent of them are in the age group of 30-49. This is the 9th annual global public opinion survey conducted by the Global Times poll center. 

Diao Daming, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Saturday that the anger Chinese people feel toward US hegemony is caused by provocations and wrongdoings of some US politicians, who “ have unilaterally damaged the bilateral ties.”

“But the result of the survey shows that these politicians don’t represent public opinion in the US. This also reflects that there is hope for recovery of China-US relations and improvement of China’s image in the US,” Diao said.

While answering the question “What issues about the United States are you highly concerned about in 2020?,” 68.5 percent Chinese participants, 31.1 percent American participants and 45.1 percent participants from the rest of the countries chose “tensions with China.” 

Observers said that this has proved that the China-US relationship is the most important bilateral relationship of the world as the tensions and conflict between these two biggest economies and great powers will not only affect the people of the two countries, but will also impact economy and stability of the rest of the world.

In the conflicts between the two in 2020, the world seems to have more faith in China, at least in the field of economy, according to the survey. “The US government has been cracking down on Chinese multinational companies such as Huawei and TikTok. Do you think it will succeed?” When answering this question, apart from the participants from China and the US, the 54.8 percent interviewees from the rest 14 countries chose “It may not be easy to succeed and China will take counter-measures.”

And 18.8 percent of them chose “It may fail, the crackdown proves the strength of these companies instead.”

Hegemonic and bullying behaviors of the US have already infuriated many Chinese. About 64 percent Chinese participants are being angry and resist firmly the US global hegemony and 21.6 percent of them chose “complain and object explicitly.”
However, when asked about their attitude toward “China’s rise globally,” 40.8 American participants chose “have no choice but to accept” and there are still 18.5 of them chose “Be angry and resist firmly,” with experts said comparing to China’s unity and confidence to resist US hegemony, Americans are being more helpless and divided on containing China or stopping China’s rise.

China US Photo: GT

Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Saturday that “the result shows that the Chinese people and government share a common understanding of US global hegemony.”

An Gang, a senior fellow and US studies expert at the Pangoal Institute, a Beijing-based think tank, said that the reason many Americans chose “have no choice but to accept” China’s rise is that China’s countermeasures to US bullying, and China's proven tenacity to withstand US provocations.

“But to what extent this will affect US policymaking remains a question,” he noted.

Among the rest 14 countries, on the changes that are anticipated to take place in the China-US relations in 2021, more participants believe that the US will intensify its containment of China and China will intensify its resistance to the US as well, and more people believe the China-US ties “will turn from tense to confliction,” according to the survey.

The Biden administration will only bring changes to US measures and tactics on containing China, but to what extent the two sides can avoid conflict depends on whether the two sides can set rules for competition and find ways to cooperate, said Lü.

“As long as the two sides establish new rules for competition and cooperation, not only the bilateral ties but also the world order,  there can be a stable framework in the future,” he noted.