With all the Tibet furore, I missed the release of the BBC World Service poll (PDF) measuring views on the positive and negative influence of various countries around the world. The BBC leads with the United States. Not surprisingly, I’m more interested in China. But Americans might be disturbed to know that the world thinks China has a more positive influence than their country. Or at least it did before Tibetans started killing Han and Hui, and Nepali police started beating Tibetans. (No wonder Stephen Hadley’s confused, though the Huffington Post shouldn’t get too cocky about Hadley’s mistake - it’s been prominently featuring mislabeled pictures of Nepali police violence.)
Here are the results for just two of the countries involved - China and the US:
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.
Another interesting thing is the big divide between the developed and the developing world in assessing China’s influence. Europeans and North Americans have a much more negative view of China than Africans, Latin Americans and Asians. Europeans and North Americans might want to bear this in mind when they talk about the “international community.” What they really mean is the North American and European community - in other words, NATO and its allies. Not the same thing.
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.
What would this poll look like if it were to be repeated now that the Chinese government and media are doing their best to destroy any positive feelings the West might have had towards them - and vice versa? I would guess that those who tended to be negative will now be much more so, but those who tended to be positive probably still are. How would China’s appraisal of the West have changed? Probably for the worse. If my guess is correct, I hope it doesn’t become a trend.
More than ever before I’m looking forward to the end of the Olympics - and the end of the rather pointless US election (how can so many people get so excited about something that really doesn’t make any difference at all?) When these two massive money wasters are over, maybe the hyperbolic propaganda on all sides might start to calm down a little. Then could we all start talking to each other instead of shouting?
7 Comments
Fascinating information and I’m glad you posted it! Might have to throw up a trackback to you over on CNReviews too.
I particularly like the observation made at the end regarding the American presidential election. While who sits in the Oval Office does make some difference (at least with perceptions), when will people figure out just how little difference each successive president makes in the American grand scheme of things? Figureheads are always useful for some things, though.
It’s interesting that China’s view toward US is 38% positive, higher than Japan, India, and even Australia. It’s also interesting that 58% Chinese is negative towards US, much higher than India and Japan.
Maybe if the average Zhou got to see how the North Koreans get to live thanks to 50 years of Bad China’s support, they’d get a reality check.
Or maybe the Killing Fields of Pol Pot, Mao’s brother from a different mother.
Kind of funny that you posted this around the same time as a similar Financial Times article with different results: China seen as biggest threat to stability.
I suppose it depends a lot on the way the questions are asked. These kind of polls can point either way depending on what you’re trying to say. Fortunately they probably don’t have much effect on the way country’s make policy.
Kyler, the two polls are measuring different things. The BBC: perceptions of positive/negative influence. The FT: perceived threat. However, the FT was only asking Europeans and Americans - and the findings are very similar the BBC poll. So are Europeans and North Americans right and much of the rest of the world wrong? Many Africans and Asians would say no.
I think both polls are rather irrelevant. They don’t really say anything. But they do stir up mistrust and suspicion between people.
Certainly not surprised of world opinion of US given the current leadership in Washington DC. But would be useful to look under the hood of that 90 china gives it self. Looks like Hu Jin Tao has done a good job of harnassing the media to promote public opninion in china consistent with official CCP policy.
There survey is surprisingly lacking in the thoughts of China’s neighbors, such as mongolia, kazahkstan, taiwan, vietnam, nepal. There might be a rather telling perspective to evaluate the closeness of a border with china inversely correlated to favorable rating.
China’s neighbors are nervous and China’s people are fully onboard with doing whatever the CCP wants to do to glorify the motherland.
2 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[…] blackandwhitecat.org, one of fellow CN Reviews blogger Kai Pan favorite blogs, we got turned onto a recent BBC World […]
[…] Black and White Cat blogged about has an interesting report from BBC’s recent World Service Poll. The poll measures public’s views on the influence (both positive and negative) of various countries. […]
Post a Comment