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Poll: Most Americans view China as an enemy

Wednesday, November 25, 2009   E-Mail this story   Free Headline Alerts

Special From Geostrategy-Direct.com

A new public opinion poll of Americans has found that a large majority of the American people regard communist China as a potential enemy.

The survey published Nov. 3 also found that a majority of Americans regarding relations with China as the most important in the world. The Thomson Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,077 adults aged 18 and older across the United States was disclosed shortly before President Barack Obama's first official visit to China.

The poll respondents were asked to identify China as either an "ally" or an "adversaryÓ and 56 percent characterized Beijing as a foe, while only 33 put the country in the ally column, according to Ipsos Public Affairs, which conducted the poll for Thomson Reuters.

When asked to choose from a list of nations that are Òthe most importantÓ bilateral relationship, 34 percent chose China, 23 percent picked Britain, and 18 percent chose Canada.

Relations with China have been difficult since formal diplomatic ties were established in 1979 under an ambiguous series of communiques that left unanswered U.S. support for and informal relations with Taiwan.

China has vowed to use force to reunite Taiwan with the mainland, viewing the island as a breakaway province. The United States has vowed to provide Taiwan with defense weapons to prevent the use of force and for some U.S. administrations have received greater or lesser support.

ChinaÕs bloody crackdown on unarmed protesters in BeijingÕs Tiananmen Square also soured ties, with the U.S. Congress imposing sanctions on China that remain in place.

In 1996, the Pentagon dispatched two U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups to waters near Taiwan in response to ChinaÕs conducting of missile flight tests bracketing the island. The carrier deployments were viewed by China as a step toward war over Taiwan.

The U.S. military mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999 during military operations against Serbian forces. Beijing accused the United States of deliberately bombing the embassy.

Then in 2001, a Chinese jet crashed into a U.S. EP-3 surveillance plane off ChinaÕs coast, triggering a new crisis. The EP-3 crew made an emergency landing on Hainan island and was imprisoned by the Chinese military for nearly a month.

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