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Americans hope to see a stronger relationship

By Lu Chang (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-20 07:44

WASHINGTON - With President Hu Jintao arriving in Washington DC on Tuesday, more and more Americans are hoping the United States will build a stronger relationship with China rather than limit the growth of China's power.

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A new global survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs finds that more than two-thirds of US citizens prefer the United States to undertake friendly cooperation and engagement with China instead of trying to constrain its rising power.

In the survey of more than 2,500 adults, three-quarters of respondents believe that someday China's economy might grow to be as large as the US economy, while only a minority holds the view that the development of China as a world power is a "critical" threat.

"Basically how I view China's rising is not as something scary and threatening as you've seen in a lot of American newspapers. I view China as a nation that we need to work with a lot more in the future diplomatically, as well as in economic issues," said Elisa Rosoff, a 20-year-old undergraduate majoring in foreign relations in George Washington University.

"It's just exciting for someone of my age going through a power shift between nations of the world that China becomes more economically powerful and the US is being forced to recognize that."

While US citizens do not see the rise of China as highly threatening at this point, they are keeping an eye on it, showing some concern about economic relations and hedging against a potential future military threat, according to the survey conducted in June 2010.

Douglas Paal, vice-president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, explained earlier this month in a briefing of President Hu's state visit that there are "deep concerns" among US citizens as China becomes stronger.

"Americans need some reassurance that China understands that the international system within which China is now prospering is one that is worth preserving," he said. "China should not try to upset the apple cart because it feels that it is finally back on the world stage with a strong economy and an improving military position."

As for Hu's upcoming visit, some Americans are seeing an opportunity to build better ties between the two countries, while others' expectations are fairly limited.

"I think only good can come out of President Hu's state visit," said Dan Suffoletta, an American employee in Levi Strauss & Co. "My belief is that when China and the US are having a dialogue and working to walk through things that relate to trade and get things rebalanced, it can be good for both countries."

However, Marvin Fong, a US-born Chinese who works in the financial industry, said that the expectation is simply that the tensions that have been developing between China and the US might be lower after this meeting.

"I hope we can address some of the tensions about the economy, monetary policy and North Korea because there are lots of issues that recently China and the US have disagreed on and right now it's just like each side is entrenching itself," he said.