A Pew Research Center poll found the majority of Americans blame China for its role in spreading the Wuhan coronavirus.
The poll also revealed most Americans have an unfavorable view of China.
From The Pew Research Center:
Americans’ views of China have continued to sour, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Today, 73% of U.S. adults say they have an unfavorable view of the country, up 26 percentage points since 2018. Since March alone, negative views of China have increased 7 points, and there is a widespread sense that China mishandled the initial outbreak and subsequent spread of COVID-19.Around two-thirds of Americans (64%) say China has done a bad job dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. Around three-quarters (78%) place a great deal or fair amount of the blame for the global spread of the coronavirus on the Chinese government’s initial handling of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.
More Republicans and Republican-leaning independents think “China has done a bad job” and a very bad job at handling the coronavirus outbreak:
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are significantly more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to say China has done a bad job dealing with the coronavirus: 82% vs. 54%, respectively. And they are about twice as likely to think China has done a very bad job (61% vs. 30%). Older people, too, are more critical, with 73% of those ages 50 and older finding fault in China’s pandemic response, compared with 59% of those 30 to 49 and 54% of those under 30. But education has little relationship to how people think China has handled the novel coronavirus: Around two-thirds of those with and without a college degree say China has not done well in its response.
The unfavorable views of China went up 7% from March.
Those who have very unfavorable views of China hit a record high of 42%. The same question only saw 23% of Americans with that view.
The other thing is that the negative view spreads across all demographics.
The economic ties between the U.S. and China influenced some answers:
More Americans also think the U.S. should hold China responsible for the role it played in the outbreak of the coronavirus (50%) than think this should be overlooked in order to maintain strong bilateral economic ties (38%). But, when asked about economic and trade policy toward China, Americans are slightly more likely to prefer pursuing a strong economic relationship (51%) to getting tough on China (46%). Still, more support getting tough on China now than said the same in 2019, when 35% held that view.
It pleased me to see that 77% of Americans prefer to promote human rights in China over economic ties.
Communist China threw down its iron first in Hong Kong with a national security law. The world is finally paying attention to the detention of Muslim Uighurs and the mistreatment of Africans.
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