Chinese-Americans view Taiwan more favourably than they do China, Pew survey finds

But recent nationwide research on US-based Asians also shows Chinese-Americans see China more positively compared to other Asian-Americans
Chinese-Americans found to be only Asian group not to have a mostly favourable impression of their ancestral homeland

US-China relations

Bochen Hanin Washington

Published: 4:40am, 20 Jul 2023

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Chinese-Americans hold more positive views of Taiwan than of China, but see China more favourably compared to other Asian-Americans, according to a survey by Pew Research Centre released on Wednesday.

Chinese-Americans also stood out for being the only Asian group not to have a mostly favourable impression of their ancestral homeland. Just 41 per cent had a “very” or “somewhat” favourable impression of China, according to the survey of US-based Asian-identifying adults.

In fact, Chinese-descent respondents saw the US more favourably than any other location in a list that included China, India, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The survey found that a mere 20 per cent of Asian-identifying respondents in the US held a favourable opinion of China, compared to 52 per cent who had an unfavourable view and 26 per cent holding neither opinion.

Among non-Chinese Asians, favourable views towards China matched those of the general American population, according to an earlier Pew survey done in March. Only 14 per cent of Americans overall held a favourable view of China, it found.

Pew described its survey of 7,006 Asian-Americans as nationally representative and the largest of its kind. It was conducted between July 5, 2022 and January 27 this year, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 per cent.

Respondents of Chinese and Vietnamese descent were the only Asians in Pew’s recent analysis to express more favourable views of other places in Asia than of their homelands.

Among Chinese-Americans, 62 per cent said they held a favourable view of Taiwan. They also regarded Japan and South Korea more favourably than they did China.

Chinese-Americans’ views of China and Taiwan depended on their immigration journey and length of time in the US, the survey found. US-born Chinese were more likely to have positive views of Taiwan as well as less favourable views of China than respondents born in China.

A slight majority of Asian-Americans, 53 per cent, considered the US the world’s top superpower in the next decade while only about a third believed China would be.

Chinese-Americans put the rival powers on more equal footing than most other Asian groups on the superpower question, with 53 per cent naming the US as the future global leader compared to 40 per cent identifying China.

In contrast, 68 per cent of Taiwanese-Americans believed the US would be the top power, compared to 30 per cent who thought it would be China.

Meanwhile, just 2 per cent of Taiwanese in the US had a positive opinion of China.

And while recent political sentiments in the US have prompted some Chinese scientists and researchers to depart for China, the survey found that 80 per cent of Chinese-Americans would not move there, compared to 16 per cent who would.