Hawkish US stance on China a bipartisan view, new survey shows

WASHINGTON -- Regardless of who wins the Presidential election, it's clear the US has turned a corner in its relations with China, and will continue to maintain a hard line, ANZ Research says in a new report. "A hawkish stance is a bipartisan view, and it seems that a growing majority of Americans are seeing China in an unfavourable way," the report says.

"A recent Pew poll found that 73% of Americans have an unfavourable view of China.  Although there is a partisan divide on some issues, most Americans are united on a couple of issues: promotion of human rights on China, and that the current economic relationship between the two is bad," the report says.

Quoting research from the Pew Research Centre and ANZ Research, the report says 73% of Republicans and 38% of Democrats see China as largely to blame for COVID-19, while 66% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats says it is more important to be tough on China than to build economic relations.

38% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats see China as an enemy of the United States, while 83% of Republicans and 68% of Democrats have an unfavourable view of China.

On the question of human rights, 78% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans believe the US should push the issue even if it harms economic relations, while 73% of Democrats and 63% of Republicans describe current economic relations between the US and China as 'bad'.

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