Attitudes Towards Russia and the USA in the Public Opinion of Modern China

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Abstract

The acute Russian-American confrontation made it important to reveal the attitude of international public opinion towards Russia the United States, especially in countries such as China. But the specifics of the attitudes of the population towards foreign states makes it necessary to analyze many aspects of these attitudes, preferably over a long period of time. Since public opinion poll data is usually severely limited both in the number of indicators and in temporal coverage, there is a need to summarize as many polls conducted by different organizations as possible. In this article, such a generalization is made on the basis of eight large-scale public opinion surveys covering the period from 2004 to 2022, including the time shortly before and after the start of the SMO (special military operation). An analysis of survey data reveals that public opinion in the PRC from 2004 to 2021 consistently treated Russia much more favorably: a large majority systematically expressed positive attitudes, the gap of which from attitudes towards the United States frequently exceeded 50%. With the onset of SMO, this positive attitude worsened in some aspects, improved in others, everywhere by an insignificant amount. Attitudes towards the United States also slightly worsened. Thus, we can confidently say that the public opinion of modern China has a very positive attitude towards Russia, rather negatively towards the United States, the beginning of the SMO, in general, did not change this situation, and the current events are not perceived by the Chinese public as extraordinary, requiring revision of views on international relations.

About the authors

Li Qin

Southeast University

Jiangsu Province, Nanjing, PRC

Nikolay S. Babich

Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS; RUDN University

Moscow, Russia

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