Survey finds bipartisan support for China cooperation

A new national survey has revealed bipartisan public support for US-China cooperation and growing concern that rising tensions are hurting Chinese Americans.

The survey was conducted by the Committee of 100 and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, one of the largest independent social research organizations in the United States.

"This third iteration of the State of Chinese Americans research is more expansive and broad reaching than ever before," said Alex Chew, NORC AmeriSpeak director and head of Amplify AAPI. "Surveying the populous at large allows us to have a full picture of the perception of the general public on issues impacting the Chinese American community."

The survey found that 59 percent of Americans want the US government to work more closely with China's government on diplomatic issues and policies that affect both countries.

This position was bipartisan too — 65 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans took this stance.

The collaborative sentiment extended to science and technology. Only 23 percent of Americans supported banning Chinese researchers from working at US institutions. The supporters included 16 percent of Democrats and 34 percent of Republicans — revealing a partisan divide on this issue.

"This reflects pretty minimal support for a policy that would certainly strain relations, among other negative outcomes," Sam Collitt, research lead of the Committee 100, said at a virtual survey launch on Wednesday. He co-authored the survey report with Carren Jao and Cindy Tsai.

This question was asked "in light of the many federal and state efforts to prosecute, restrict, and ban Chinese researchers from doing research with American institutions," according to Collitt.

Collitt said the findings were in line with recent surveys by Pew Research and the Chicago Council that negative attitudes toward China among the US public seemed to have peaked, but it remains to be seen if it's "a blip" or "part of a longer trend towards improved perceptions of China."

She also said that the China Initiatives program, which resulted in many Chinese American scientists being falsely accused of spying for China, was one primary example how Chinese Americans were negatively impacted due to tension between the countries.

That tension is rising as China narrows the economic gap with the US, and as a result many Americans see China as a threat. However, Americans may need to see China from a historical perspective, said Madeline Hsu, a history professor at University of Maryland, College Park.

"A lot of times we forget that before 1800, China was an extremely wealthy, perhaps the wealthiest, considered an elite civilization, and went into decline under duress and exploitation by Western imperial powers, and we forget this," she said.

That history amnesia has made it difficult for the US to understand how to "have a relationship with China that is recovering its sense of purpose, its sense of self-determination, its wealth and influence in the world," Hsu said. "This is just a restoration of a historical situation, and we have not figured that out."

Sweeping measures often ruin people's lives, Hsu said.

"Dr. Jane Wu at Northwestern University was summarily accused of some sort of wrongdoing very abruptly. Her lab was shut down. She's stripped of her position, and she committed suicide," she said, citing one example among many.