US perspectives on China, Asia vary sharply between ‘elites’ and general public, survey finds
- Officials, bureaucrats and business leaders in the US are nearly twice as likely as common folk to view trade with China as beneficial to their states’ economies
- Findings come as Washington is looking to re-engage with the Asia-Pacific region amid heightened geopolitical tensions and economic competition with China
American “elites” and the general public have vastly different perspectives on the economic benefits gained from engagement with China and the Asia-Pacific region, a new survey has found.
Funded by the East-West Centre, a Hawaii-based research and education organisation, the survey found that, when it comes to issues such as trade and job creation, political and business elites were much more likely than ordinary folks to believe that China and other Asian countries were beneficial to their states’ economies.
“There is a large gap between the public’s view of Asia and China’s importance, and elites who believe Asia and China are far more important,” Satu Limaye, vice-president of the East-West Centre, said on Wednesday during a panel discussion on the findings.
Conducted by the National Opinion Research Centre (NORC) at the University of Chicago, the survey found that while 48 per cent of elites said trade with China was “extremely” or “very” beneficial to the economies of their home states, that number fell to 25 per cent for the general public.
In terms of job creation, only 30 per cent of the general public believed that China was a source of “some” or “a lot of” jobs in their state, compared with 54 per cent of elites.