Share of Americans Who Describe China as ‘Enemy’ Rather Than ‘Competitor’ Surges: Poll

U.S. President Joe Biden (R) and China's leader Xi Jinping (L) meet on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Nov. 14, 2022. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

A growing number of Americans are increasingly viewing China as an “enemy” as opposed to a competitor or partner of the United States, according to a newly released Pew Research Center survey.

Pew surveyed 3,576 adults from March 20 to March 26. The survey, which was published on April 12, is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population.

It found that 4 in 10 Americans now describe China as an enemy of America, up 13 points from 2022.

Specifically, when asked whether they see China as either a competitor, enemy, or partner of the United States, 52 percent of respondents said they see the country as a competitor, marking a drop of 10 percentage points from a year ago when 62 percent of Americans saw China as a competitor.

The share of respondents describing China as an enemy rose from 25 percent in March 2022 to 38 percent in March 2023, which is the highest Pew Research Centre has recorded since 2021.

Just 6 percent of respondents said they consider China a partner of the United States, the survey found.

About 8 in 10 American adults—or 83 percent—have negative views of China, up 1 percentage point from 2022, and those with unfavorable views of the nation have increased by 4 percentage points year-over-year, from 40 to 44 percent, the survey found.

The survey comes as tensions between Washington and Beijing have been further exacerbated in recent months amid the latter’s increasingly aggressive actions around the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

China Blames ‘Lies, Rumors, Anti-China Forces’

On April 10, China finally ended three days of military drills around Taiwan, which included testing integrated military capabilities under actual combat conditions as well as practicing precision strikes, following Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting in Los Angeles with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

The meeting, during which McCarthy promised to speed up arms deliveries to Taiwan, was condemned by China’s Foreign Ministry, which branded it an “erroneous act of collusion.”

Issues surrounding the Chinese-owned TikTok app—which has been banned on U.S. federal government devices amid concerns over the possibility of user data being obtained by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)— the nation’s human rights abuses, and the Chinese surveillance balloon shot down over American skies in February have further fanned the flames, as has Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

According to the Pew Research Center survey, 47 percent of respondents believe tensions between China and Taiwan pose a very serious problem for the United States, marking a 19-point increase from the share who said the same in 2021.

Meanwhile, 62 percent of Americans see the China–Russia partnership as a very serious problem for the United States, up 5 points since October and back to the original high levels seen just after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Speaking about the results of the survey at a press conference on April 13, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said he normally would not comment on specific polls but blamed the findings on “lies, rumors, anti-China forces” for spreading disinformation about his country, which he said have “seriously misled public opinion and clouded people’s judgement in relevant countries.”

“We will continue to be open-minded and welcoming towards having more cultural exchanges with other countries and bringing people from different countries closer to each other,” he added.