Mainland Chinese see Taiwan positively, won’t retreat from US trade war: survey

Mainland Chinese citizens feel more favourable towards Taiwan than they did six months ago, support a hardline stance towards the US if another trade war erupts and view Russia and North Korea most positively and Japan least positively among their neighbours, according to a new survey by the Carter Centre and Emory University.

One finding that comes through loud and clear, its authors said, is that mainlanders believe they have arrived and their country now belongs in a grouping limited to China and the US.

“The Chinese public understand themselves to be living in a G2 world,” said Nick Zeller, survey co-author and senior programme associate at the Cartre Centre, speaking Tuesday at the Asia Society. “And they expect the United States to meet them there.”

The China Pulse polling comes at a key juncture as Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump prepare to meet later this month in Beijing.

And it provides a rare window into the views of ordinary citizens in a nation where polling is often restricted or banned outright. The survey is careful, for instance, not to elicit responses on domestic policy.

While the public’s feelings towards Taiwan have warmed modestly since the last survey six months ago, those feelings remain complicated.

Even as positive feelings have grown, and the overall preference is for peaceful efforts to improve relations drawing on shared culture, however, fewer mainland Chinese are against using force to bring about unification than six months ago.