The Trend of China-US Strategic Competition and Chinese Domestic Public Opinion about Sino-US Relations from Trump to Biden

Abstract

Over the past five years, Sino-US relations have taken on an increasingly complex dynamic. This paper will establish an analytical framework based on two key variables affecting China-US strategic competition: interests and comprehensive national power, and then utilizes this framework to analyze the trend of confrontation and cooperation between China and the US from the Trump administration to Biden. In the second part, this paper contains data from a two-wave public opinion poll in China done before and after the 2020 US presidential election and illustrates how public opinion affects foreign policy decisions in authoritarian nations. The conclusions are: the space of China-US competition and cooperation is growing with their increasing conflict interests and common interests due to the increasing strength of China; After Biden became president, Chinese opinions of the USA and the bilateral relationship improved somewhat; The majority of Chinese respondents thought China was the largest and most powerful economy in the world and supported China being the worlds leading power; younger and more educated respondents had more pessimistic opinions. There are significant policy ramifications of these results.