Shannon Brandao
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"Garima Mohan and Chris J. Murphy, FP [excerpt]: The German Marshall Fund of the United States conducted its annual Transatlantic Trends #survey of the public’s attitudes this summer, to assess opinions on a range of issues that are crucial to trans-Atlantic interests, including #China. Respondents were polled from 14 countries: the #UnitedKingdom, the #UnitedStates, #France, #Germany, #Sweden, #Italy, #Poland, #Turkey, #Canada, #Spain, the #Netherlands, #Portugal, #Lithuania, and #Romania.
While a majority of those polled (64 percent) currently see the U.S. as the world’s most influential actor, respondents believe the gap between the U.S. and China will close in the next five years. When asked who they see as the most influential actor in global affairs five years down the line, only 37 percent of respondents replied with the United States, followed closely by China (30 percent). Overall, the percentage of those who see China becoming more influential has increased by 5 percentage points from last year’s survey.
There is also a geographical divide on this question; while Western European countries see China assuming a greater role in the next five years—including Italy (51 percent), France (42 percent), Spain (36 percent), and Germany (34 percent)—these numbers are much lower for Central and Eastern European countries like Lithuania (15 percent) and Poland (18 percent), where a majority of respondents still see the world as more unipolar, with the U.S. at the center.
And yet, a majority of respondents across the Atlantic view China’s influence in the world negatively, except Romania and Turkey. Conservative-leaning respondents in some countries showed the most negative views of Chinese #influence. In the United States, for example, 69 percent of Republican-leaning respondents, versus a national average of 58 percent, perceive China’s influence negatively. In the United Kingdom, it is 79 percent of Conservative-leaning respondents versus a national average of 64 percent. In Germany, the Greens, who lean left, have the most negative views of China’s influence (74 percent) in the country."
#news #geopolitics