Young adults in West tend to be positive about China

Despite the growth in unfavorable public opinion toward China in the West, young adults in the United States and European countries tend to hold a more positive view on China and have a more rational viewpoint on the China policy of their countries, surveys have shown.

A survey in July by YouGov, a British market research and data analytics company, indicated that 55 percent of British respondents between ages 18 and 24 believe that the coronavirus pandemic has not affected their view on China.

In a nine-country survey in July by the European Council on Foreign Relations, 52 percent of respondents said their perceptions of China had improved or remained unchanged.

Based on data collected between July and October by You-Gov, China is more popular among millennials, people born between 1982 and 1999, than among other age groups, with 23 percent of respondents having a positive view of China.

In the United Kingdom, 52 percent of respondents said that it is fairly important for the UK to maintain a good relationship with China while 14 percent considered it very important, another YouGov survey suggested.

In a survey published by German nonprofit organization Koerber-Stiftung, 36 percent believed that a close relationship with China is important for Germany, 12 percentage points higher than last year.

According to survey in the US published by the Pew Research Center in July, although positive views of China have fallen across most generations, younger adults remain more positive than others.

Thirty-two percent of people born between 1984 and 1995 see the country in a positive light, which is 9 percentage points higher than people born between 1965 and 1980, and 11 percentage points higher than those born between 1946 and 1964, the survey said.