They are much less likely to see the country as an enemy than their parents
  • sylver_dragonEnglish
    42•6 months ago

    This kinda looks like a bad poll. The wording seems to setup a bad choice of extremes. The respondent has to either choose “friendly” or “an enemy”. But the relationship between the US and China is a much more complex thing. The US and China are certainly in competition in a number of areas, economically and geopolitically. The induction of China to the WTO in 2001 impacted the US’s manufacturing sector negatively (see: https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-9/forty-years-of-falling-manufacturing-employment.htm). The US and China are at odds over the fate of Taiwan. But, in spite of all that, the US and China have deep trade links which benefit both countries greatly. And both countries are likely better off than they would be without the other. Global trade is generally positive for the economies involved, though global trade can also fuck individuals inside each economy, including driving wealth concentration and harming the economically disadvantaged and people whose skills don’t align well with the industries their country is focused on.

    Trying to boil US-China relations down to either Friendly or “Enemy” misses a lot of the nuance and may mean people aren’t giving an accurate picture of how they view China.

    • @ahal@lemmy.ca
      4•6 months ago

      Those options seem fine for a poll imo. If you ask the same question to older demographics and more people pick “enemy”, then isn’t the conclusion in the headline valid?

      • Shazbot
        7•6 months ago

        A lot of nuance will be missed without some gradation between “I <3 China” and “Down with Pooh!” For example, if we added “Slightly favorable”, “Neutral”, and “Slightly unfavorable” we would begin to see just how favorable younger generations are. Rather than presume there is a deep divide on trade policy, if two bars are almost equal, we may see they are largely neutral. Similarly we could see just how favorable their views of TikTok really are by looking at the spread between neutral to “I <3 China!”

      • @madcaesar@lemmy.world
        7•6 months ago

        I know what you’re saying, but it’s still a shitty poll. I think people in the past were way looser with the word enemy. Everyone was an enemy, the Russians, communism, drugs, immigrants poverty… everything was a fucking enemy that needed a war.

        So, even though just as many people might distrust China the language has changed and we wouldn’t call them “enemy”.

        The Chinese government is authoritarian, evil and awful but I still wouldn’t call China an “enemy”. Because life isn’t black and white, and once you call somone an enemy you’ve shut off your brain and nothing good will come out of it.

      • _NoName_
        5•6 months ago

        The issue is that your reducing a multivariable spectra to a single binary. That kind of data compression destroys a massive amount of valuable data, and alot of nuance along with it.

    • @library_napper@monyet.cc
      2•6 months ago

      I’m neither a friend nor an enemy to most people in the world.

      But when it comes to orgs, I’m an enemy of most od them, and definitely an enemy of every State.

  • @emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
    33•6 months ago

    Isn’t it a general trend that younger people, on average, are less xenophobic / racist / bigoted than the previous generation? I also remember reading somewhere that younger Chinese people are friendlier to Japan, South Korea and the US than their parents.

  • @COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
    31•6 months ago

    I visit China frequently for work and feel that the impression most older Americans have of China is incredibly out of touch. The traditional media portrayal of the country is definitely a part of this. Yes, it’s certainly an authoritarian state, but this doesn’t change whether the people are nice or what they want in life.

  • @nucleative@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29•6 months ago

    My company has an office in China and I’ve been there many many times.

    Chinese people are like all other people - same needs, same hopes and dreams, same fears, same drivers. In the city where our office is located, they are extremely hard working and want to ensure a better future for their family. Just like most American cities.

    Their city is very high tech, moreso than many American cities because they skipped a lot of legacy technology.

    They don’t necessarily subscribe to the same moral/value system as Americans, for example they often see copying each other’s ideas as a compliment whereas Americans see it as stealing. Kind of like - if it’s possible to copy, then it’s fair game - so don’t make it possible if you don’t want it copied. Perhaps that drives a different kind of innovation.

    Obviously there are many more cultural differences. But as a people, we are all essentially working with the same needs.

    All that being said I don’t appreciate the great firewall when I’mthere, the censorship, and the fear they have about discussing banned topics. I don’t appreciate the high-tech security cameras at every corner, or all the tracking of activities. The younger generations tolerate this for now because they are wealthier than their parents and told to cooperate, but that may not hold long term.

  • acargitz
    9•6 months ago

    Wasn’t part of the promise of economic globalization that increased interdependence would lead to less conflict? That a smaller, more connected world, would lead to intercultural communication and understanding, leading to a more stable international order?

    I mean, wasn’t this supposed to be a feature? Why is it being reported as a bug?

  • @Sgt_choke_n_stroke@lemmy.world
    9•6 months ago

    living through remnants of cold War with cccp

    have access to internet to research what happend to america afterwards

    everything made come from China

    seemingly life is worse today compared to the 80s and 90s.

    Yea I can’t imagine why young people don’t give a fuck about a new cold war with China

  • LiberalSoCalist
    3•6 months ago

    The majority of that age range still considers China an enemy, but a tiny fraction of ambivalent onlookers out of an overwhelming majority of a reflexively anti-China populace is enough for the Economist to dedicate an article to a fucking YouGov poll.

    It’s just another pearl-clutching “what’s wrong with today’s youths” headline to panic the elderly while flattering compliant millennials/zoomers for being one of the few (despite still being the majority!) “good ones” that march goose-step with consensus Western political thought.

  • @pyrflie@lemm.ee
    2•6 months ago

    The fact that Taiwan isn’t mentioned in either the article or the referenced study speaks volumes.

    Hong Kong and Taiwan are the primary opposition point for anti-CCP and represent Xi’s primary failures in soft power policy.

    It’s kinda shocking too, since his predecessors were masters. 100 year strategy thrown in the sea for a dick measuring contest in one city.

    Xi shat the bed 2012, and now everyone paying attention knows his government’s guarantee’s aren’t worth the paper and ink of printing.

    Most US kids think Taiwan is another country. If China invades they will be the enemy.