Poll shows majority see US as friendly after summit

The latest Global Times poll revealed that more than half of respondents see China and the US as either allies or friends, with nearly 80 percent believing the recent summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama will have a positive impact on the relations between the two countries.

The survey, conducted by the Global Times Global Poll Center through computer-assisted telephone interviews from Sunday to Wednesday, revealed some 40 percent of those surveyed see the two countries as friends. However, a Chinese expert suggested the results might be slightly skewed by the recent summit, which has been portrayed by the media as a success.

The poll interviewed 1,305 respondents aged over 18 from seven major Chinese cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Changsha and Shenyang.

Nearly half of those surveyed think the summit will show the world that China and the US are aiming at developing a more "healthy relationship" and 23 percent think it will deepen communication.

Xi and Obama held a summit on Friday and Saturday in Rancho Mirage, California. It was the first meeting between the two leaders since Xi took office in March, and officials and experts from both sides described it as positive and constructive.

Shi Yinhong, a professor with the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, said that the public's attitude toward the summit is very "sensible."

"The summit, which was portrayed by media as the beginning of a new chapter of Sino-US relations, has boosted confidence among the Chinese public. But the impact may be short-term," Shi said. He told the Global Times the result also showed the majority of the public understand bilateral relations will not change dramatically because of major differences between China and the US.

Some 53.1 percent interviewees think China and the US are either allies (12.7 percent) or friends (40.4 percent), while 41.1 percent view the US as either unfriendly (36.4 percent) or an enemy (4.7 percent).

Compared with a US survey earlier this month before Xi's US visit, however, the Global Times poll shows Chinese are more likely to regard the relations as unfriendly while more Americans think the two countries are enemies. A survey by the Gallup Organization, a US-based consulting company, showed that 55 percent of those surveyed see China as either an ally (11 percent) or a friendly nation to the US (44 percent), while 40 percent of respondents say it is either unfriendly (26 percent) or an enemy (14 percent).

Wu Xinbo, a professor from the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times that the US always regards China as an enemy that will challenge its international status while Chinese view development as in their own interest.

"In fact, the Sino-US relation is a combination of competition and cooperation, although the proportion of the two elements is always changing," he explained.