During his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, US President Barack Obama will try to manoeuvre some wins off a reluctant China. Yet, as Obama attempts to employ his famous, though not always successful, diplomacy, he will be acting on behalf of a nation whose opinion of Hu?s country is generally unfavourable.
After years of patting themselves on the back for their superpower status, Americans are becoming increasingly cognisant of China?s rapid rise. While in 2000, 65% of Americans perceived their country to be the leading economic power (China came in third with 10%, after Japan), earlier this year, Americans placed China at a statistical tie with them for this status. In recognition of China?s growing economic and political importance, 34% of Americans view US-China ties as the most important bilateral relationship for their country. However, acknowledgment of China?s strategic importance does not cast that nation in a favourable light: only 33% of Americans view China as an ally, whereas 56% consider it an adversary. In fact, majority of Americans see China?s emergence as a world power as a major threat to the well-being of the US.
Americans? attitude towards China, given the circumstances, is unsurprising. In addition to menacing the US? prized sole superpower status, China has become the US?s biggest lender through its purchases of US Treasury bonds.
Americans also see China as a human rights violator that poisons toothpaste, unfairly manipulates trade with undervalued currency, and prioritises national interests over multi-national ones on issues such as climate change or security. In the American mind, the evil of such crimes is further substantiated by China being a communist nation. The resoluteness of American public opinion and China?s strategic resistance to change make it unlikely that Americans will fall in love with China anytime soon. Americans are simply looking for Obama to extract maximum benefit from this unavoidable partner and to help delay the inevitable moment when the US will be forced to share centrestage with China.
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