US and Chinese flags are set up before a meeting between Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on July 8. The mutual negative feeling among the Chinese and American peoples is worrying as it could fuel tensions between the two countries, which are already high. Photo: AP / Pool
Opinion
Lijia Zhang
Lijia Zhang
US-China relations: poisoned public opinion driving vicious cycle towards new cold war
Public opinion in the US and China towards the other is at its lowest point, hampering efforts to improve relations and avert the drift towards conflict
Politicians’ need to appear tough on the other side and preserve their legitimacy is driving them to even more hawkish positions
As a child, a dark tunnel at the entrance of our village in Nanjing frightened us children. Rumours even suggested it was haunted. The tunnel was actually an air defence shelter. Constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, they were all over Chinese cities in case the United States or the Soviet Union, the two largest powers in the world, attacked us.
The Cold War has long since been buried in the dust of history, but it is not unthinkable that we could be heading into a new cold war and that children from both sides will have to live in a climate of fear once again. The tensions between China and the US are rising, and public opinion in both countries is not helping.
In early June, a survey of more than 2,000 Chinese people conducted by Stanford University found that 75 per cent of respondents held negative views of the US. The same survey showed that American respondents’ views of China were similarly negative at 76 per cent. The findings are in line with other polls that show unfavourable views of each other are at record lows.
Another poll by the Roper Centre in the US found that Americans’ views of China have started to resemble their views of the Soviet Union decades ago in terms of hostility, pessimism and militarism.
This mutual negative feeling towards each other is worrying as it could fuel tensions between the two, which are already high.
The relationship between China and the US has experienced a roller-coaster ride. After Richard Nixon’s visit to China in the early 1970s, which broke the political ice, a brief honeymoon period emerged. In Chinese, the US is meiguo, or “beautiful country”. Millions of Chinese people, myself included, took this to heart. The US was seen as a dream country with its freedom, democratic system and opportunity for all.
In recent decades, this view soured. The bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and the Hainan incident two years later when a US intelligence plane and a Chinese jet collided helped erode ties. Former US president Donald Trump’s trade war further alienated China. Finally, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s failure to condemn the invasion have further poisoned the relationship.
In the US, Republicans and Democrats seem to compete over who can be tougher on China. This trend reinforces the negative image of China among the general public. This low point of public opinion could in turn drive the political leaders to take even more hawkish positions on China.
The record low opinion of the US in China is attributed to many factors. Naturally, public opinion is influenced by its media and leaders’ hardened attitudes towards the US. Back in March during the all-important National People’s Congress, President Xi Jinping – a more assertive leader compared to his predecessors – bluntly blamed the US and its “comprehensive containment” of China for the country’s slow economic recovery.
Some Chinese intellectuals and opinion leaders also feel disillusioned about the US because of its many problems, such as its polarised and unequal society, political corruption, gun crime, debt issues and so on.
Does public opinion matter in an authoritarian country such as China, where there is no democratic voting system? The answer is yes, even though the correlation between public opinion and government decision-making is perhaps less strong compared to that of the US. There have been suggestions that Xi sharpened his rhetoric because he didn’t want to be seen as weak by the people of China.
The Chinese government does respond to public opinion as it cares about its political legitimacy, as shown in its sudden abandonment of its zero-Covid policy. The increasingly negative public views of the US could encourage its leaders to take a harder line against the US. This vicious circle is dangerous as the dramatic deterioration of the relationship will not be good for either country.
Disturbing as it is to see views of China in the US resembling those of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, I am not surprised as American politicians often lump Russia and China together. The difference between China and the Soviet Union is as wide as that between heaven and earth, though.
03:44
Yellen hails ‘step forward’ in US-China ties despite national security concerns
Yellen hails ‘step forward’ in US-China ties despite national security concerns
China is much more economically powerful, and its economy is deeply entwined with that of the US. That wasn’t the case with the Soviet Union. This incorrect impression is likely to lead to miscalculations in foreign policy decision-making.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China was intended to mend ties. However, soon after US President Joe Biden called Xi a “dictator”. Such comments only darken China’s image and worsen the relationship. Both sides should avoid such rhetoric. Great powers should tolerate a great deal of ambiguity in their relationships if they ultimately believe peace serves their interests.
Many air defence shelters in China have been dismantled and converted into underground shopping centres or tourist venues. Let them stay that way.
Lijia Zhang is a rocket-factory worker turned social commentator, and the author of a novel, Lotus
