For the first time in five years, American attitudes towards China have softened compared to the previous year, with a significant drop in the percentage of those who view China as the “enemy”, according to a survey released by the Pew Research Centre on Thursday.
Overall attitudes remain overwhelmingly negative at 77 per cent, but the percentage of respondents with “very unfavourable” views towards China decreased by 10 points from last year, to 33 per cent.
Distrust of China grew during the trade war US President Donald Trump started during his first term and the Covid-19 pandemic, but has persisted as the two countries have jockeyed for geopolitical influence, ramped up technological competition and navigated tensions over spying allegations, human rights and Taiwan.
Pew surveyed 3,605 American adults from March 24 through March 30, after Trump announced two rounds of 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports. But the polling came before Trump’s sharp escalation of tariffs on China to 145 per cent this month and subsequent retaliatory duties imposed by Beijing.
According to Christine Huang, a research associate at Pew, this was the first time since 2020 that the think tank had observed a significant year-over-year decline in negative attitudes towards China.
