In the upcoming 2020, the world is unprecedented in a hundred years. The great changes have caused a sudden increase in uncertainties affecting future development. On December 5, the Global Times Public Opinion Center released the global poll report “The world under the epidemic, crisis and change – the world is big, who dominates the ups and downs”, which is also the ninth global public opinion poll of the Global Times Public Opinion Center.
The survey was conducted in 16 countries around the world, and 16,000 public opinion questionnaires were collected to objectively show “2020 in the eyes of the global public”.
The survey results show that many respondents in many countries have obvious dissatisfaction and helplessness with the global hegemony shown by the United States in 2020. And China’s international influence continues to increase, and interviewees from various countries hope to cooperate more with China in addition to the economy. This article is also the first in the 2020 year-end series of in-depth reports.
The proportion of people who think the international image of the United States has “been” continued to increase compared with last year, with the exception of Indian public opinion.
This questionnaire survey was conducted in 16 countries, including China, the United States, Russia, India, Indonesia and Australia. These countries are represented by major countries in the world, important neighboring countries, emerging economies, developing countries and countries along the Belt and Road Initiative.
The survey adopts a random sampling method based on a large sample library, and completes the data collection through email invitation and online answering. The survey period was from October 23 to 30, and 16,431 valid samples were recovered.
The U.S. election is one of the most concerned events in 2020. This survey set up a questionnaire on this topic, and the results show that Biden, the Democratic candidate, has an advantage over his opponent Trump.
This is consistent with the current election results. In the U.S., 47.4% of the 1,007 questionnaires projected Biden to win, compared to 42.3% for Trump. Judging from the overall survey of 16 countries, respondents in many countries are more eager for Biden to win.
Among them, 45.2% of respondents in China want Biden to win, compared with 18.8% who support Trump, and 56.9% in South Korea support Biden. Other national questionnaires predict Biden’s winners to exceed 50%.
The proportion of Russian respondents expecting Trump’s victory is significantly higher, reaching 50%, followed by Ukraine, India, Egypt and other countries, with more than 40% of respondents expecting Trump to win the election.
A questionnaire survey of 16 countries also shows that nearly 60% of the respondents think that the international image of the United States has become “behing”, which continues to increase from 55.5% in 2019. Among them, 80% of the respondents in China believe that the international image of the United States has deteriorated, ranking first in the world.
Secondly, France, Britain, Germany, Australia and other Western countries. 44.5% of the respondents in the United States think that their international image has “been worse”. It is worth noting that India’s public opinion performance is obviously different from that of the world’s public opinion. 30% of the respondents think that the international image of the United States has become “behic” and nearly 40% think that it is “becomeminant”.
Interviewees in many countries are dissatisfied and helpless about the global hegemony shown by the United States. Among Chinese respondents, the proportion of “angry” is the highest, South Korean respondents have the highest proportion of “complaint” and Germany and France have the highest proportion of “helplessness”. In contrast, India has a significantly higher proportion of “acknowledgement and support” among the respondents than in other countries.
Zhang Yiwu, a professor in the Chinese Department of Peking University, said in an interview with the Global Times that the current U.S. President Trump has performed very strongly during his four-year term, and even harmed the interests of many countries, including allies, to achieve his ruling goals, resulting in a poor reputation and image of the United States worldwide.
People in many countries, including the United States, have changed their views on Trump, and public opinion expectations for the outcome of the U.S. election have turned more to support for Biden, with a view to changing the current unilateral foreign policy of the United States. Zhang Yiwu believes that although public opinion subjectively hopes that Trump will lose the election, Biden’s final victory objectively is the result of the internal struggle of the United States, which is not directly related to the promotion of Trump’s global hegemony.
The United States suppressed Chinese enterprises, and most of the respondents thought that it was “probably not easy to succeed”
In 2020, due to the all-round suppression of China by the United States, the frictions between the world’s two largest economies in politics, economy, diplomacy and non-governmental exchanges deepened. Among the many matters related to the United States, about 68.5% of respondents in China are particularly concerned about “tensions with China”, while 45.1% of respondents in 14 countries other than China and the United States chose this option.
It can be said that in addition to the United States, the people interviewed in 15 other countries have listed the tension between China and the United States as the topic of greatest concern. The people interviewed in the United States are most concerned about the country’s general election, followed by US-China relations, and then racial discrimination.
In 2020, the U.S. government vigorously promoted the “decoupling” from China, and vigorously suppressed Huawei, TikTok and other Chinese technology companies.
However, the survey shows that people around the world generally believe that it may not be so easy for the United States to successfully suppress Chinese enterprises.
According to data from 14 countries other than China and the United States, 54.8% of the respondents believe that the U.S. government’s suppression of Chinese multinational enterprises represented by Huawei and TikTok “may not be easy to succeed”, more than 20% think it is “possible to succeed”, and nearly 20% think it is “possible to fail”.
By country, most respondents in most countries hold the view that “may not be easy to succeed”. India believes that the proportion of “probably successful” is abnormally high, and South Korea, the United States, Australia and Egypt believe that the proportion of “probably succeed” is relatively high. More than 40% and 30% of the respondents in China and Indonesia chose the “may fail” option respectively.
In addition, for the United States’ continuous abandonment of multilateral cooperation and the promotion of hegemony around the world, respondents from 13 countries except Indonesia and China and the United States are relatively more expected by China to increase its counter-US, while only 4 of these 13 countries are relatively more expected by the United States to reduce its containment of China, and most of them are relatively more expected by the United States to strengthen its containment.
Japan, South Korea, India and Australia are particularly obvious.
“From the results of the investigation, people from different countries show relatively large national differences in the emotional tendencies during the confrontation between China and the United States.” Song Guoyou, deputy director of the American Research Center of Fudan University, told the Global Times that people in developing countries or countries that share China’s development path generally believe that China’s global influence is increasing and they are more supportive of China.
However, in countries with certain differences with China, their people will have more complex ideas.
Song Guoyou said that the investigation objectively reflects the influence of Sino-US relations, so China and the United States should be more cautious in handling bilateral relations, especially after U.S. President-elect Biden takes office, so as not to cause the embarrassment of other countries being forced to choose sides between China and the United States.
Song Guoyou warned that it is not ruled out that individual countries want to see the contradiction between China and the United States continue to expand in order to maximize their own interests. Song Guoyou believes that the suppression of the United States may put pressure on individual enterprises, but Chinese enterprises as a whole will become stronger and stronger. At the same time, he said that the economic complementarity between China and the United States is very strong, and it is the best policy to solve the differences between the two sides through rational dialogue.
The world expects “richer” cooperation with China.
China was the first to effectively control the epidemic. As a global production and manufacturing base, it continuously exported materials to all over the world, which played an important role in the recovery of the global economy.
Correspondingly, the survey shows that the proportion of expectations in global leadership in the United States and China has increased by 4.7% and 3.6% respectively compared with last year. Among them, the proportion of expectations in China has continued to increase significantly in the past three years.
According to the survey, 60% of the respondents in 16 countries believe that China’s international influence has “gradually increased” in recent years. From a country perspective, most respondents in other countries except Japan believe that China’s influence is “gradually increasing”. The world is aware of the rise of China’s influence and expects more content of cooperation with China.
According to the global survey data in the past three years, the world’s expectations for exchanges and cooperation with China have gradually become richer from “special emphasis on the economy”, and the expectations for scientific and technological cooperation have greatly increased, almost rising to an equal footing with the economy.
By country, respondents from developing countries have higher expectations for economic, scientific and technological and medical cooperation, while Western countries such as the United States and Japan and South Korea expect to strengthen diplomatic relations.
However, the survey also shows that foreign people are “not optimistic” about China’s feelings and want to know more about China: 37.4% of the respondents in 15 countries said they had a “good impression of China as a whole”, 43.3% said negative; 39.3% said they “like China”, 33.3% said they said they “like China”, 33. 6% hold a negative opinion.
In terms of the impact of the epidemic, nearly half of the respondents were surprised that China could effectively control the epidemic, and more than half of the respondents did not hate China because of the epidemic in Wuhan. More than 60% of the respondents said they knew China, and nearly two-thirds of the respondents “mainly understand China through the media, the Internet and other indirect channels”.
Overall, more than 60% of the respondents hope to “know more about China” and more than 40% of the respondents hope to come to China in person to “understand and experience the real China”.
Da Wei, director of the International Strategy and Security Research Center of the Institute of International Relations, told the Global Times that the epidemic in 2020 has had a huge impact on the global economy, but China has indeed been very successful in epidemic prevention and control, especially the social management has achieved obvious results, reflecting the superiority of the system.
China’s social production capacity, especially the production and external supply of medical supplies, as well as the scientific and technological strength of vaccine research and development representatives, all reflect China’s comprehensive ability and global irreplaceability as the world’s second largest economy. In Dawei’s view, in the past, the global understanding of China was more limited to the impression of a “trade power”, but during the epidemic, people from all over the world saw a more diversified and comprehensive China.
As a result, China’s global influence is increasing, and foreign people’ expectation of cooperation with China is not only economic, but also to expand to various fields such as science and technology, medical care and so on.” As a newly emerging country, people of all over the world have a desire to further understand China, and some people still have some misunderstandings about China, which is normal.
