HKU POP SITE releases survey on world views on China and the United StatesBack

Initiated and managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, USA, and with the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong being responsible for coordinating the surveys in Greater China Region (GCR), WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) today releases around the world the survey findings on 「World Views on China and the United States」 right before the two leaders meet each other. The survey interviewed 20,349 people in 23 regions worldwide between April 4 and July 9, 2009. For details, please visit WPO website at http://worldpublicopinion.org, or the Chinese homepage (also called 「World Opinion Platform」) designed and maintained by POP at http://wpo.hkpop.hk.

In terms of world averages, world publics have higher positive appraisal on China than on the US, with a respective of 49% and 43%. Their negative appraisal on China is lower than that of the US, with a respective of 30% and 38%. Results of GCR show greater difference. The averages for China's and the US's positive role in the world are 74% and 45%, whereas 10% and 32% for negative role. This press release has shown the results of regions well-known to Hong Kong people. Please refer to the website for other figures.

WPO analyzes: 「publics in more than half of nations disapprove of the way China and the United States are dealing with global warming. At the same time many nations see these big powers as using the threat of military force to gain advantages.」 Invited commentator from Hong Kong Dr John Chuan-Tiong Lim observes, 「this survey finds that less than half of world publics thought neither China nor US "is playing a mainly positive role in the world". This shows that the international society is alert to the replacement of the US and Soviet Union in the Cold War era with these two new superpowers.」

The margins of error of WPO surveys conducted around the world are controlled to the range of +/-3 to 4 percentage points.

(Compiled by HKUPOP, pivoting on the Greater China Region)

POP today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) and 「World Opinion Platform」 (http://wpo.hkpop.hk) the latest figures of WorldPublicOpinion.org, which reflect people's views of China and the US around the world. Herewith the contact information for the latest survey:

Herewith the results of people in Greater China Region (GCR) and countries well-known to Hong Kong people. The theme is people's views on the role of China and the US in the world, please refer to 「World Opinion Platform」 for more details: *

Results of the latest survey showed that 74% of the publics in GCR thought China was mainly playing a positive role in the world, while only 10% thought it was mainly playing a negative role. On the other hand, 45% publics in GCR thought the US was mainly playing a positive role in the world, and 32% thought it was playing a negative role.

Herewith the results of people in GCR and countries well-known to Hong Kong people on China's and the US's actions on climate change, respectfulness for human rights, being cooperative with other countries, and using the threat of military force to gain advantages. For more details and contact information, please refer to 「World Opinion Platform」: *

Results of the latest survey showed that 47% of the publics in GCR appoved how China was dealing with the issue of climate change, 34% approved how the US was dealing with the issue of climate change. As regards the issue of human rights, 37% publics in GCR thought China was generally respectful of human rights, while 59% believed the US was generally respectful of human rights. Besides, 80% of publics in GCR saw China as generally cooperative with other countries, while 62% saw the US as generally cooperative. Lastly, a respective of 31% and 81% thought China and the US used military threat to gain advantages.

The following commentatory is provided by WorldPublicOpinion.org (or WPO):

WorldPublicOpinion.org (or WPO) interviewed 20,349 people in 23 regions worldwide between April 4 and July 9, 2009. The survey finds that publics in more than half of 20 nations disapprove of the way China and the United States are dealing with global warming. China gets poor marks for how it handles human rights—on average 52% say China does not respect human rights while just 36% say it does. The US does better, with 50% saying it is respectful and 38% it is not. China and the United States are both seen as cooperative. Asked 「if you think US / China is or is not generally cooperative with other countries,」 an average of 59% responded positively with regard to the US, and 53% for China. At the same time many nations see these big powers as using 「the threat of military force to gain advantages.」 This is especially true of the US: all nations polled, including the US itself, sees the US this way—on average 77%. Views of China are less sharp: on average 46% say China does the same, while 41% say it does not.

Invited commentator from Hong Kong Dr John Chuan-Tiong Lim, Fulbright Scholar at Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies of Harvard University (email address: [email protected]), analyzes the survey results as follows:

With the rising of China, China and the United States as two superpowers of the world becomes more obvious. However, this survey finds that less than half of world publics thought neither China nor US 「is playing a mainly positive role in the world」. This shows that the international society is alert to the replacement of the US and Soviet Union in the Cold War era with these two new superpowers.

What's interesting is that up to 80% of the publics from the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macau of the Greater China Region (GCR) as well as the US itself have positively appraised their own country, which is 30% more than the world average. This shows the great difference in the inflation of people's ego of these two nations and the views of world public.

Three points from the survey results of the GCR are worth noticing:

Firstly, findings in Hong Kong and Macau on the positive role of China to the world are consistent with those from Mainland China. This is a result of the fast expanding economic integration with Mainland China after the handover of Hong Kong and Macau, and the growing importance of 「China」 to Hong Kong and Macau. This also reflects the outcomes of the 「civil education」 which emphasizing the honor of the mightiness of our motherland.

Secondly, the survey results of Taiwan are similar to the world average, this can be interpreted as the result of their calm attitudes. This also indicates that Taiwan people are at odds with and are frightened with Mainland China. This survey result is not beneficial to the current speedy reconciliation progress between the two regions across the strait.

Thirdly, as regards Chinese respect for human rights, as high as 76% Mainlanders gave an definite positive answer, opposite to the would average which stands at 36%, while as high as 62% Hong Kong people held negative views which is even higher than the world average (51%). The former of which indicates the discrepancy in the perception of Chinese respect for human rights between Mainlanders and the international society. The latter, on the other hand, shows Hong Kong publics' strong awareness of crisis in human rights issue, and its huge difference from Mainlanders on this issue.

WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) was initiated and managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, USA. At present WPO consists of research centers from over 20 countries or regions including Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland and Taiwan (together called Greater China Region).

Apart from conducting the Hong Kong part of WPO survey, the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong is also responsible for designing and maintaining the Chinese homepage of the WPO at http://wpo.hkpop.hk, which can be accessed via the HKU POP Site at http://hkupop.pori.hk. Besides, POP is also responsible for coordinating the polls in the Greater China Region, and will follow the rhythm of the WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) to globally release the Chinese versions of WPO's press releases regularly. We welcome questions for follow-up purpose, please email them to us at [email protected].