The Polls: Changing Attitudes and Policies Toward China

Abstract

A NUMBER of far-reaching changes have occurred inside China during recent years in the areas of administration, ideology, and economy. These developments, which also include such events as the fall of the Gang of Four and the new 10-year plan which aims at rapid modernization, are accompanied by a growing rapprochement between China and Western countries. Overtures have also been undertaken from the West. In 1971 China was admitted to the United Nations, in 1972 President Nixon visited China, and late in 1978 China was finally recognized by the United States. In addition, both parties have been seeking reciprocal trade relations. All these changes are reflected in the public opinion with respect to China. Even the designation of China in the questions used in public opinion studies affords a striking illustration of the changing attitude toward China: In 1979 the name People's Republic of China is used, and there is reference to Communist China only in those cases where a distinction must be made from Taiwan in a question. Up to 1971 the only names used in the questions were China, Red China, and Communist China. All four of these designations were handled from 1971 to 1979-the period of transition. This pattern applies only to American opinion studies. In France, IFOP used the name Chinese People's Republic as early as 1966, and in Great Britain the designation is usually just China (with the exception of the years 1962 and 1963). The opinion surveys collected for this Polls section have for the most part been carried out in the United States. To allow comparisons to be made, materials have in some cases also been included from Great Britain, West Germany, the Netherlands, and France. The reason for this geographic restriction is that the changes in the American public opinion with respect to China are more spectacular than those in the countries of western Europe. Consider this example: Regarding the entry of China into the United Nations, the percentage of advocates of this accession among the American public rose from 7 percent in 1954 to 45 percent in 1971. In Great Britain the percentage of supporters during roughly the same period remained more or less constant at about 50 percent. Appreciation for China generally changed in the United States during the period 1967-1979 from emphatically negative to a positive attitude. China's war with Vietnam, which broke out after the diplomatic recognition of