Chinese Urbanites Are of Two Minds on U.S., Poll Finds

Hou Anjun, a worker in the Beijing financial industry, likes American culture, admires the American university system and says he would jump at the chance to visit New York.

But when it comes to U.S. foreign policy, the Taiwan issue and Washington’s prodding on human rights, 40-year-old Hou is less enamored of the world’s only superpower.

“There’s a real difference in value systems,” he said.

In a survey of 1,175 families in five major Chinese cities released this week, 71% of the respondents had a positive view of Americans. But 57% also said they believed that America was trying to limit China’s advancement. The poll was conducted by Global Times, the weekly magazine of the People’s Daily newspaper; the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and polling firm HC International.

The love-hate relationship with the United States mirrors attitudes around the world, experts say.

“I think this is a very common view,” said Wang Jisi, director of American studies at the social sciences academy. “It’s a case of ‘Down with U.S. imperialism!’ on the one hand and ‘I want a green card’ on the other.”

What was surprising, the poll’s sponsors said, was the extent of the positive attitude, given how strained relations became after an American spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet in 2001 and was forced to land on an island in China.

Polls have traditionally been less important in communist and other countries with top-down political systems than in democracies, because leaders generally don’t run for office or need to worry about short-term public opinion. In recent years, however, polling has become a growth industry in China, initially driven by marketers trying to identify buying habits. More and more, though, the surveys delve into public views of China’s leaders and foreign policy.

As the Communist Party’s ability to rule by fiat has eroded in China’s increasingly pluralistic society, the party has become a major client of polling firms.

Respondents to the survey, which was conducted last month, characterized the U.S. as a competitor and a partner in almost equal measure. One question asked respondents to rate four current and former U.S. officials on how significant an impact they have had on policy toward China: President Bush, former President Clinton, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

Clinton was rated highest, at 51%, followed by Bush at 15%, Powell at 14% and Rice at 5%.

“Every president starts out taking a tough line on China, and the Clinton administration was tough early on,” said Hu Xijin, an editor at Global Times who helped produce the poll. “But for Chinese, the perception is that it came from the administration, whereas Bush seems really tough. That’s the way he is personally, and he’s been tough consistently around the world.”

Analysts say they view the overall findings as encouraging. With the U.S. the most powerful country in the world and China’s star rising, the nations’ economic, military and political interests are bound to diverge.

“It’s very important for people in the two countries to appreciate and understand each other,” Hu said. “Politicians and governments may run into trouble. But if the two peoples like each other, future conflicts can be controlled.”

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Yin Lijin in The Times’ Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.