Imagine a totalitarian government hellbent on upending traditional Western democratic institutions. It is fully willing to use asymmetric warfare against its adversaries, and is fiercely irredentist, constantly promising its people that it will “reunify” with a region that doesn’t even wish to be part of it. It ethnically cleanses minorities within its borders, and runs a police state that has been shown to massacre protestors en-masse. You’d think a country like that would have an incredibly negative view among young people, but you would be thinking wrong. After all, how many young people do you hear complaining about China?
China’s favorability has seemingly grown over time, especially among young people. In the United States, 30% of people aged 18-34 view China favorably. This means almost one in three young Americans view an authoritarian regime favorably. It should also be noted that people on the left wing of the political spectrum in the US generally tend to be younger, and as it turns out, people on the left tend to have a higher favorability of China.
The statistics become more profound when you look across the pond towards Europe. A majority of young Spaniards, Brits, Poles, and Greeks view China favorably, something made exceedingly strange by the fact that Russia, China’s biggest ally, is seen incredibly unfavorably in Europe after its attacks on Ukraine. This goes to show the indirect beneficiaries of that conflict, such as China, barely get condemned, despite how important they may be to fueling the war machine.
One last set of countries that are important to look at when it comes to views on China is the Indo-Pacific region. This region has been increasingly put under strain because of Chinese aggression towards other countries in the area and unsurprisingly, the people of this region take the threat China poses very seriously. In India, Australia, and Japan, less than 30% of young people have a favorable opinion of China. In South Korea, numbers are even lower, with it being the only country to have an overall worsening opinion of China over the last few years. With China significantly growing and modernizing its armed forces, and constantly clashing with nearby nations, China’s growing threat to the region has certainly caused scrutiny from its neighbors. While it is true people in these countries have an extremely negative view of the government in Beijing, views are still somewhat softening across the board, although on a scale much smaller than in Western countries.
While it is important to examine the opinions of people internationally, local beliefs are also good to look at. According to a poll conducted among the SBHS student body, 22.6% of students view China favorably. 19.4% view it unfavorably, and 58.1% have a generally neutral view, mainly because of a smaller range of knowledge about China and its controversies, shown by the fact that 35.5% of students said they knew “very little” about China geopolitically in the same poll.
Some non-political reasons stated for seeing China favorably included the natural beauty of China, as well as having Chinese heritage. It should be noted that seeing China favorably for these reasons does not necessarily indicate an endorsement of Beijing’s aggression or human rights violations. Political reasonings, however, are far less divorced from implicit support of the regime in Beijing. Some political reasons mentioned were the high percentage of people housed in the country, beliefs that China does not participate in much “imperialism” compared to the United States, and a general belief that China is a “peaceful” country. This belief probably stems from the fact that while China has been aggressive towards its neighbors, it has not entered a full blown war for decades, unlike the United States.
On the other hand, reasons for being unfavorable towards China are mostly political. These reasons included a lack of freedom due to significant government control, the current alleged genocide of an ethnic group called the Uyghurs, and large scale censorship of Chinese media.
Finally, seeing the conflict from a neutral lens combined elements from the previous arguments. While some people simply voted neutral because they didn’t have a molded opinion, others argued China’s improvements to the world were somewhat negated by the human rights abuses they’ve committed. People also brought up the geopolitical conflict between the US and China, claiming they were both “equally bad” and that China’s significant investment in the economies of third world countries has potentially improved more lives than the United States has. This is keeping in mind the context of the United States was notorious for installing dictators in third world countries during the Cold War, economically stunting many of them.
Despite this seemingly balanced view of China among the student body, there is a general agreement on other things; mainly whether the US or China should be the dominant superpower on the world stage, and whether or not the US should defend Taiwan militarily if China were ever to invade. 77.4% of SBHS students believe the US should be the dominant superpower, and 67.7% of students believe Taiwan should be defended militarily by the US. Additionally, 90.3% of students believe China’s actions at least somewhat affect the lives of Americans.
While people’s opinions on topics such as this change all the time, it is always important to analyze these situations to figure out how things should or should not work moving forwards.
