Survey: Young Germans Prefer China Over The U.S.
Der Spiegel magazine: “Young Germans are turning into China fans.” Nearly half of them want closer ties with China over the U.S.
If you believe a new survey, Germans are turning to China in the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
Younger Germans now prefer China over the United States as an ally, the poll conducted by Kantar Public pollsters for Germany’s Koerber Foundation found.
“Germans view the United States less positively since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis while their attitudes toward China have improved,” the German public broadcaster DW News reported citing the survey. The broadcaster added that “73% stated that their opinion about the United States had deteriorated due to the current health crisis caused by the novel coronavirus,” compared to only 36 percent who looked more unfavorably towards China since the outbreak. “Coronavirus turns Germans more critical of US,” the DW News concluded.
Overall, thirty-six percent of Germans want their country to have closer ties with China, as opposed to 37 percent who still prefer the United States. But the pro-China sentiment was much higher among young Germans.
“Young Germans are turning into China fans,” German weekly Der Spiegel wrote.
The magazine reported the critical finding of the survey:
More than a third of the Germans view China today as the number one partner outside Europe. It is a steep rise as compared to September 2019: at that time only 24 percent of respondents said that China is more important than the United States. Now 36 percent are of that opinion.
Looking at it the other way around: now only 37 percent hold the opinion that America is more important than China. That number was 50 percent in September. Those who want to hold on to a strong transatlantic bond now only have a very narrow lead.
The share of China fans is largest with those between 18 to 34 years. Nearly half of them, 46 percent, expect more from Beijing than from Washington (as opposed to 35 percent who are undecided). Apparently, for young Germans the power of the future lies in the east. [Translated by the author]
“Germans’ skepticism about the United States is growing, a worrying trend that should give political decision-makers on both sides of the Atlantic food for thought,” Nora Mueller of the Koerber Foundation told media.
The trend comes as China wages a massive global propaganda campaign in the wake of the coronavirus. Beijing is doing everything to cover up the media manipulation it is carrying out on foreign soils.
“The European Union toned down part of a report about Chinese state-backed disinformation because it feared Beijing would retaliate by withholding medical supplies,” the Hong Kong-based newspaper South China Morning Post disclosed on April 25.
Chinese diplomats are at the forefront of this campaign, bullying and threatening foreign journalists, policy experts, and politicians. I reported on this intimidation campaign in my recent article for the Gatestone Institute.
The changing public attitudes can also come from the relentlessly negative coverage of U.S. politics in recent years. A study by Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center in 2017 found that during U.S. President Donald “Trump’s first 100 days in office, 98 percent of [Germany’s state-run] ARD‘s news coverage that assigned value to a story about him was negative,” a figure higher than that of CNN, NBC, the Washington Post, the New York Times or any other media outlet included in the survey. In 2018, a leading German journalist working for Der Spiegel, Germany’s leading political magazine, was caught making up fake news stories portraying the supporters of President Trump in America as racists and bigots. Not surprisingly, the now-disgraced journalist was previously named the ‘CNN Journalist of the Year.’
For decades, Germany’s left-wing media elite have been at war with the United States. Even before President Trump appeared on the scene, anti-Americanism was a well-established tradition in the left-dominated German mainstream media. Many on the German left have not forgotten or forgiven, the role the U.S. played in the collapse of the Soviet Eastern bloc, their beloved utopian socialist paradise.
‘China Pushing Coronavirus Disinformation,’ say U.S. Intelligence Officials
[Cover image via YouTube] [Excerpts from German media reports translated by the author]
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Comments
Perfect pairing.
Gods luck… now let’s get our military out of Germany and into Poland… and while we’re at it, let’s put the missiles back!
Germany is welcome to prefer China over us. Perhaps they can call China next time Vlad Putin threatens to turn off the natural gas being delivered from Russia.
I’d go further — if Europe as a whole prefers China to us, we can forego our membership in NATO and suggest that China replace us. China could then move 50K troops, naval units, and aviation units to central Europe. This will be essential as we all know: Europe needs a superpower to keep the Europeans from going at each other’s throats, as they’ve done with relish the last 30 centuries or so.
Go for it, Europe. We won’t stop you.
I’m just spitballing here, but something tells me that they REALLY hate Israel.
Bears out a lot of my impressions re: German “youts” when I was living there.
same here. in mid to late 1980’s youth there were enamored with the nazi party manner of controlling everyone. not necessarily (as a whole) antisemitic just the control of business/government/etc.
I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape because a bunch of young adults, who enjoy a very prolonged adolescence/delayed entry to adult life continue to…hold childlike, unrealistic views.
Many if not most German young adults live at home with their parents well into their late twenties. Some until they themselves are married. That is the cultural norm in Germany.
Another point is that the oldest person in the 18-34 year old demographic would have been born in 1986. They have no memory of the cold war at all. Hell they were what three years old when the Berlin wall fell? That is the oldest in that group.
I would be reluctant to put much emphasis on this survey when trying to draw larger conclusions.
Just saw an article earlier this morning, I think it was a UK survey, that said 97% of leftist liberal activists still live with their parents well into their late 20s.
Good. So, next time France, Austria, and Poland attacked Germany, let the Germans go to China for their help. Oh, wait…!
^^^ attack…
Fake news. Der Spiegel is Germany’s version of CNN. They’ve been spouting anti-American propaganda since long before Trump.
You are right about Der Spiegel and I won’t trust everything it prints, but this survey does reflect a wider trend in Germany
They seem to have a thing for military dictatorships. Half of the country was still under one until 1990.
That’s the half that doesn’t want to go back. Same with the rest of Eastern Europe – in general, they’re the most pro-western populations in Europe.
You said it Vijeta!
If you believe a new survey…….
We don’t believe surveys by Das Muttdia.
I believe, the poll does reflect a general trend in Germany. I see a rise in anti-Americanism here (in the media and public debate). US Ambassador Grenell and others have been warning about this for some time.
Vijeta,
No don’t the trend line is towards the agreement with hard socialist/oligarchs of the PRC by younger Germans. Heck the only ‘question’ we can see in the post is rephrase.
‘More than a third of Germans view China today as their number one partner outside of Europe.’
In economic terms that’s probably true. German exports are very dependent upon China.
I was stationed in Germany from 2001 -2011. Though deployed from there to the obvious and not so obvious locations around the world. In the mid 2000, when the Germans got hot and bothered about US action in Iraq and Afghanistan they kept making statements that U.S. forces should leave. Once we began drawing down forces and rebasing them in CONUS they got quiet.
I still don’t think they know how very close they were to having the hospital in Landstuhl and training facilities at Grafenwoehr, both moved out of Germany but capabilities repositioned in Europe.
My impression of Germany is similar to France. Outside Paris the French are super nice. Same for rural areas of Germany, very welcoming to Americans.
“…very welcoming to Americans.”
there’s a lot in that statement. The city-bred clots are all hip and mod and “on the bleeding edge” as it were, culturally/politically speaking. They are also wasters and dipsticks for the most part. Our average high school boy has more maturity.
I was stationed about 20 miles south of London so I easily got to experience both ‘city’ and ‘country’ as well as run across all sorts of Euroweenies. Had a great time but preferred the outer suburbs and the ‘country’.
If you really want to get PO’d, go to the college towns and dress appropriately to the local norms of jacket and tie and hit the student pubs and let it be known you’re a Yank. Just order a beer and they’ll hook in. Then listen to the pretentious drivel.
I have to amend that last bit to include American colleges and universities these days with regards to pretentious drivel from clots in Liberal Arts majors. Europe is not alone in that regards.
As an American visitor you will meet friendly Germans. No doubt. It’s a welcoming country. I can attest to that fact as a foreigner.
But it is also true that anti-Americanism is a potent force across the political spectrum. This impacts public perception and policy.
Let China pay for their defense.
When left to their own devices the Germans have always flirted with evil.
Allow me to correct something:
“Many on the German left have not forgotten or forgiven, the role the U.S. played in the collapse of the Third Reich, their beloved utopian socialist paradise.”
Germany has lost its soul. It has a difficult time in reconciliation with its 1933-1945 history, which is indelible according to honest history. Today’s younger Germans know 21st century Germany; the Germany of the first halt of the 20th century is a moral dilemma they can’t understand. German culture currently struggles with identity between Goethe and Muhammad. Now it must decide if the Fatherland is Muhammad or Chinese? How many German surnames are in China? Go through an American phone book, it you can find one, there are millions of German last names in America. One would think an alliance with America would be stronger than what China intends. In irony, what is the difference between the 2020 propaganda of der Spiegel (the Mirror) and the propaganda of Mein Kampf, Chapter 6, 1925? Although the targets and intents may not be the same, the mechanism of disinformation, newspeak, and coercion is identical. Lesson learned? Not! The Romans called the tribes east of the Rhine river, Germania, or, people of the Spear. Arminius consolidated the German tribes in 6 AD to ambush three Roman legions. He destroyed all three legions and ultimately prevented Rome from subjugating Germania east of the Rhine River. There is very little Latin influence in the modern German language. Germany has been at war in Europe for a long time. And, with itself.
“None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Great post.
Thanks.
At the moment, Goethe’s quote applies to us as much as anybody else.
Was the poll sponsored and or conducted by the CCP? Beat it was.
Sometimes I think China and Germany deserve each other.
Hmmm, another Asian/German alliance, after all it worked so well the last time they tried it.
Don’t forget, Germany is looking for allies that Russia hates as much as the US.
Keep your friends close…
The German Stalinist left were agitating against US policy just weeks after the creation of the American zone of occupation following WWII.
Not an insignificant number of left-academia/politicians and workers openly loath America and Americans and would much prefer closer ties to Putin’s red-brown Russia.
I’d bet we’d all be stunned at how many “young Americans” would choose China over America if this same poll was conducted here.
Germany: vandalizing Western Civilization since 410 AD.
So, young Germans prefer a corrupt, lying, dictatorial regime over freedom and prosperity.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Hong Kong families should invite them over as exchange students!
Well, good for them. I guess the next German/oriental AXIS we fight will have the Germans teaming up with the Chinese. China, before you do you might ask the Japanese how that worked out for them. And with an army the size of our five largest states, I don’t think we’ll wait around for an island-hopping campaign to get serious.