Via blackandwhitecat.org, one of fellow CN Reviews blogger Kai Pan favorite blogs, we got turned onto a recent BBC World Survey (pdf)on international public opinion on world countries. Warning: this is a Kai Pan’esque mega post written by Elliott.
The seeds of polarization are already clear in this survey
Blackandwhitecat came up with an unsurprising, but somewhat depressing, conclusion:
One of the interesting things about this poll is that each country seems to have quite a rosy view of its own influence on the world, even if the world doesn’t agree. The Chinese, however, have taken this tendency to extremes – a whopping 90% positive appraisal. Either the Chinese are extraordinarily perceptive, or they are somewhat lacking in introspection….
Throughout most of the poll, when one country has a negative view of another, the feeling is mutual. So China and Japan both gave each other bad marks. An exception to this is Germany, which gave the most negative of all the European assessments. China, on the other hand, was quite positive towards Germany. It probably isn’t anymore.
I don’t think people in the U.S. really know how positive Chinese people are about their role in the world. So these differences in opinion lay the seeds for misunderstanding.
What does the US invasion of Iraq and the Tibetan crackdown have in common? Both events have polarized the views of the citizens of the country against the views of the world.
Polarization has continued, most recently through the Tibet events and the subsequent Olympic protests
- Danwei posted on Who is winning the Olympic PR War? Jeremy’s conclusion: In the West, Free Tibet organizers. In China, the Chinese government.
- Global Voices Online posted on China Fallout from the Free Tibet Protests. Conclusion: increasing polarization on the China BBS’s that don’t tolerate minority opinions especially from Han Chinese.
- FT/Harris Poll showing that China has overtaken the US as the biggest threat to stability according to Europeans.
- Mutant Palm’s translation of Fanfou tweets (Fanfou is a microblogging tool, like Twitter) that demonstrates that Chinese people are not “brainwashed” by the government but carefully considering Western sources and see them as being just biased as their own sources.
- A plaintive cry from a Chinese person on cbc forums: “My friends, what do you want from us?” (h/t China Digital Times and China Herald) Even well-educated, cosmopolitan Chinese are feeling persecuted by the world and boycotting French products.
These posts, and the data from the BBC World Survey cry out for the need for people to seek to understand first and to see the world from each others eyes.
US people take note: the world still doesn’t like the US government. In fact they like China’s government more.
Views of China’s Influence by country
Views of U.S. influence by country
Which country has a more positive influence in the world, U.S. or China?
- Overall: China. 47% for China vs. 35% for U.S. (excluding subject country)
- Latin America: China. 45% for China vs 32% for U.S.
- Europe: China. 39% for China vs 31% for U.S.
- Middle East: China. 63% for China vs. 34% for U.S.
- Africa: United States. 66% for China, 70% for U.S.
- Asia (ex-China): China again. 40% for China vs 39% for U.S.
Advantage: China.
In fact, only 9 of 23 countries rated the U.S. higher than China: Portugal, Italy, Israel (just barely), Kenya, Ghana, Phillipines, South Korea, Indonesia, and Japan.
Caveat: Data was collected in December 2007 before the recent March Tibet events and the torch run. Things may have changed.
The only good news: things used to be worse for the US. The BBC looked at historical results and concluded that the “World views US ‘more positively’” than before.
So what should we do about this?
Listen first. Then understand. Then discuss. Then debate. Then convince. Only then will you gain the long-standing respect of your fellow world citizens.
UPDATE 4/19: Lots of continuing examples of how extreme nationalism, amplified by the Web, is creating real cost to be a moderate. Rick Martin at PandaPassport highlights Duke University Grace Wang’s actions to bridge the gap between pro-Tibet and pro-China demonstrators, and also Jin Jing statements requesting moderation from Netizens, and the violent response from Netizens that turned a heroine into a traitor in less than a day as reported by Liang Fafu and translated by China Digital Times (h/t to PandaPassport):
Below is a news item:
2008-04-16 14:24:00 Source: Xinmin.cn. Netizen Comments: 480. Summary: Olympic torch bearer Jin Jing has publicly said she hopes netizens will be prudent in handling calls to boycott Carrefour as the first victims of such a boycott are likely to be the many Chinese who work for Carrefour.
Below is some of the commentary from netizens:
Netizen from Jinan, Shandong: “Jin Jing is bullshit! Speaking on behalf of Carrefour. I think she’s a traitor.”
Netizen from Beijing: “Torch bearer Jin Jing, I earnestly request you to shut your mouth. You’ve done your duty already. Don’t go around making irresponsible remarks. First she’s missing a leg, now she’s missing a brain.”
If an Olympic torchbearer, selected for her excellence in her sport to represent the Chinese people, and who happens to be handicapped, can be attacked with this degree of hatred from Chinese netizens, it means that anyone who shows moderation can face the wrath of extremist Netizens.
On the other site, I was disturbed by the TechCrunch article about Chinese Internet Users Say “Enough” to International Bullying to write a 450+ word rant in defense of what I thought were relatively level-headed commenters who were pro-(L) China against what I thought was shameful anti-(L) China commenters who appeared to be primarily American (or at least Western). Frankly, my homeboys made me ashamed. Now, I’m seeing a side of Chinese nationalism that frankly makes me concerned about where things are going.
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Very interesting article Elliott. Wasn’t very surprised with the U.S. numbers, but didn’t expect the pro-China results in Egypt & M.E. And this is an improvement for the U.S? Yikes.
Thanks for writing this post for me, Elliott, and I do think you did a much better job than I would’ve throwing so many other sources and links together, including quite a few that have stood out to me as well such as the Global Voices Online link.
While I do think the Iraq war comparison to the Tibet controversy is somewhat appropriate, I do want to add a distinction to your general conclusion that both events have polarized their respective countries’ citizens against the rest of the world. Just as with the self-perceptions contained in the BBS World Service Poll, there is more dissent, division, and debate over the Iraq War within the United States than there is over the Tibet issue within China…at least on the surface. Far more Americans disagree about the Iraq War than Chinese do about “race traitors” whose only crime boils down to simply having a different opinion.
Even as the majority of Americans still think they’re a positive influence on the world, I’m still comforted by the existence of 36% of the population that is self-critical. Those people are necessary to prevent potentially disastrous action borne out of the misconception that one can do no wrong.
Danwei posted on Who is winning the Olympic PR War? Jeremy’s conclusion: In the West, Free Tibet organizers. In China, the Chinese government.
I totally agree this conclusion.
Which country has a more positive influence in the world, U.S. or China?
* Overall: China. 47% for China vs. 35% for U.S. (excluding subject country)
* Latin America: China. 45% for China vs 32% for U.S.
* Europe: China. 39% for China vs 31% for U.S.
* Middle East: China. 63% for China vs. 34% for U.S.
* Africa: United States. 66% for China, 70% for U.S.
* Asia (ex-China): China again. 40% for China vs 39% for U.S.
Elliott can you just explain the reason to this statistics :)
@aw,
I think it is all because of the Iraq War. When Bill Clinton left office there was a lot of positive opinion about the US. When 9-11 happened the world was on the side of the US. Even after the Afghanistan invasion people felt ok about it. I think that the US defying the UN and unilaterally moving into Iraq, and then not finding Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) was the turning point. I was always anti-Iraq invasion and never voted for George W. Its sad to see how 8 years can destroy world good will. But the world seems to forgive and forget China’s June 4 1989 Tiananmen cr4ckd0wn…so my hope is that 9 years of good behavior from the US will turn things around.
I think the US should learn from Deng Xiaoping’s “28-Character Strategy” of the early 1990s (mentioned here):
Observe calmly
Secure our position
Cope with affairs calmly
Hide our capabilities and bide our time
Be good at maintaining a low profile
Never claim leadership,
and make some contribution
Of course this has to be modified because it is hard to “hide our capabilities” in such an open, transparent society.
Aw, what do you think? The nice thing is that we can discuss the flaws of US government policy freely without fear of harmonization! Hey NSA, hear what I’m saying?: Throw George Bush out of office!! Down with George Bush!!
It’s complicated to say what I’m thinking. Even just minutes before I wrote this comment, my blog got a “connection timeout” due to someone repeatedly post comments with lots of “sensitive words”.
I am really willing to do something but I have to take care. It’s hard for you to understand, maybe it’s just as so as you think the Chinese in mainland are hard to understand what’s happening outside.
if you can read in Chinese, you may take a glance at
http://www.ifgogo.com/66/being-a-chinese/
Take a look at those comments, see how terrible the majorities are.
I am sorry, in my last comment, I mean this:
http://www.awflasher.com/blog/archives/1250
The big problem with US influence has been that the current US administration decided to take a more unilateral approach in foreign policy (attacking Iraq in 2003), just when the US economy was becoming more dependent on external financing (I.e. Japan, China central banks’ continued purchases of US T-bills). Now, we are finding out that the credit expansion was at least partially fraudulently funded thru all all kinds of credit derivatives.
Part of the better image of China in the world is because at least the Chinese go to developing economies and buy and sell things. In this respect, China is seen as having kept inflation down. Unfortunately, many American companies are perceived as playing a financial shell game, and along with US foreign policy, it has not helped the US.
This year though, inflation has sharply gone up all over the world. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
@Paul, you should post at ChinaVortex about this issue of America exporting inflation around the world. I think it makes sense but I don’t fully understand that well enough to post on it.
the CPI in China is …. hoho …
I’m reading books on economics. As a web developer i’d better shut up on this before I know more. :)
@ aw for #4: Don’t mistake “which country is PERCEIVED to have a more positive influence in the world ” with “which country HAS a more positive influence in the world.” Also, don’t forget that this survey was done before the recent Tibet issue. China will quickly learn the international PR game, which often results in the image of a country changing quickly or suddenly. With the recent controversies spiraling out of control, we’re witnessing an erosion of Chinese and non-Chinese willingness to communicate and understand each other. Rabid nationalism from the average Chinese isn’t helping.
@ elliott for #5: I agree. The Iraq War and President George W. Bush’s reputation for coming across less than eloquently has tarnished America’s image in significant (though not all-inclusive) ways. For our mainland Chinese friends, I do want to parallel that to Taiwan’s Chen Shui Bian, who has also been profoundly detrimental to Taiwan’s situation over the 8 years of his presidency.
Hi Paul,
Is it really any surprise that the U.S. ‘approval rating’ in many places is lower than China’s? The country with the most power is always going to have the dubious honor of being disliked around the world. Someday in the not so distant future, China may very well overtake the U.S. If that happens, it will be interesting to see how these statistics change.
http://www.teachabroadchina.com/why-chinese-patriotism-is-to-be-respected-and-feared/
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