Most Americans blame China for spreading coronavirus - survey
Divided by political party affiliation, a vast majority of Republicans (83%) and Democrats (68%) hold a negative view of China.
By CODY LEVINEChinese and US flags flutter before a trade meeting in Shanghai, China July 30, 2019(photo credit: REUTERS/ALY SONG)
American perceptions of China have continued to plummet according to a new Pew Research Center survey, which was released on Sunday.According to the survey, three-quarters (73%) of American adults currently hold a negative view of China, the worst results in the 15 years that Pew Research Center has been tabulating on US-China relations.There has been a rise of seven percentage points in negative US perceptions of China in the last four months, since the outbreak and spread of coronavirus, Since 2018, there has been a total rise of 26 points in negative US attitudes towards China.Divided by political party affiliation, a vast majority of Republicans (83%) and Democrats (68%) hold a generally unfavorable view of China. More Republicans (54%), than Democrats (35%) hold a very unfavorable view of China.Similarly, two thirds of US adults (64%) believe that China has mismanaged handling of the coronavirus outbreak, while about three-quarters (78%) believe that the Chinese government initial policies on the coronavirus following the outbreak.In addition, a majority of Americans say that US-China economic relations are bad (68%) and very bad (25%) as opposed to good (30%). More than half of Americans believe that economic relations were poor since the spring of 2019, an increase of 15 percent points over the past year.On the question of trade policies and economic ties, around half of Americans (51%) say it is more important to build a stronger economic relationship with China, while 46% believe think it's important to get tougher on China. This represents an increase of 11 percentage points since 2019.The survey was conducted from June 16 to July 14, 2020, among 1,003 adults in the United States.
