As negative views of China grow among those in the United States, Russians have overwhelmingly positive views of their neighbor, recent surveys show.
A survey jointly conducted by the Chicago Council think-tank and Moscow-based polling station Levada Center, published Friday, revealed that 74% of Russians have a favorable view of China, a finding that hinders the growing geopolitical heat between the two. two nations. Only 45% thought the same about the European Union, and only 39% had a positive image of the US.
This data emerges amid a downward turn in China’s preference in the US. A Gallup poll published earlier this month found that only one in five respondents in the US had a positive view of China. That was down from one in three last year and a reporting low since 1979, the year Washington began relations with the People’s Republic.
In the decades since, the country has established itself as a leading economic force rivaled only by the U.S. Its military and diplomatic forces have also been strengthened, now challenging Washington’s post-Cold War status as the world’s only superpower, which it acquired with the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
While Washington views Beijing as its main competitor, Moscow today sees it as a strategic partner with which it maintains the strongest bilateral ties in the history of the two countries.
GREG BAKER / AFP / Getty Images
The Chicago Council-Levada Center poll found that the Russians saw the benefits of closer relations with China, which have resulted in unprecedented diplomatic, economic and military cooperation.
A 55% majority of Russians say their country’s relationship with China has the potential to improve Russia’s position in the world, and 57% felt these ties would grow closer over the next decade. Looking back, 56% said China is getting more respect today than it was 10 years ago, 42% said the same for Russia and only 9% said that for the US.
And despite the widespread perception of their unequal relationship, 56% of Russians said Moscow’s growing ties to Beijing would not increase Russia’s dependence on China.
“Russian President Putin’s reorientation away from the West and towards Beijing in the wake of the 2014 annexation of Crimea appears to have been accepted, if not embraced, by the Russian public,” said the Chicago Council-Levada Center investigative report . Ironically, although the Obama administration planned a pivot to Asia in 2009, it may be the Russians, not the Americans, who have successfully turned East.
As for the deteriorating ties between the US and China, the Gallup report saw the COVID-19 pandemic as a contributing factor and warned that Asian-Americans were facing collateral damage as a result.
In a year rocked by a pandemic first discovered in China, and arguably the most widespread US cyberattack attributed to Russia by the US intelligence community, both China and Russia have hit new lows in attitudes. of Americans, “the report said. said.
“The findings also coincide with reports of increased hate crimes against Asian Americans in the United States,” the report said, “something Biden hopes to flatten out by condemning the anti-Asian speech in a recent executive order and denouncing the federal government. instruct to avoid such language in its operations. “
President Joe Biden has repeatedly condemned the increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans in the country. At the same time, he has largely continued his predecessor’s hardline against China, and his government has said it has “deep concern” over the recent World Health Organization investigation into the origins of COVID-19 in China.
Moscow, on the other hand, has praised Beijing’s efforts to combat the coronavirus, especially the efforts the two countries have made together.
“Our cooperation is truly excellent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday, according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency. “From February, March and April last year, Russian scientists and medics had contact with the Chinese partners. The Chinese helped us with individual protective equipment, when there was a catastrophic shortage, the Chinese helped us with equipment and medicines.”
On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian returned the compliments.
“China and Russia have stood shoulder to shoulder and worked closely together to combat the coronavirus,” Zhao told reporters on Friday. “We have helped each other with anti-epidemic materials, shared hands-on experience without reservation, and jointly conducted research and development of vaccines and drugs, and worked hand in hand to resist all kinds of ‘political viruses.’
He praised the cooperation between the two countries.
“This reflects the high-level operation of China-Russia relations in the new era and the deep friendship between the people of the two countries,” said Zhao.