Public Perceptions of China in the US: Friends, Frenemies, or Foes?

From a short paper that I did for a statistics course:

Spring 2009 Pew Research data bivariate comparison and analysis of US individual economic satisfaction and perceptions of China.

I suggest that in a comparison of US citizens, those citing a lower level of individual economic satisfaction will be more likely to have a less favorable view (as a measure of public perception) of the People’s Republic of China than will those individuals indicating a higher level of individual economic satisfaction.

There is a strong domestic determinate of personal economic satisfaction that is closely related to public perceptions of the People’s Republic of China. The reasoning behind such a hypothesis is rooted in the common perception that blue collar (particularly) but also some white-collar jobs have been lost to the Chinese. For this reason, individuals experiencing various forms of economic hardship (unemployment, having family/ friends who are unemployed, perceptions of reduced buying power, investments and savings, stock performance, etc.) are likely to seek some sort of explanatory factor. At present, and largely attributable to the 2008 Olympic games, China’s role in the world has been highlighted. It is because of this confluence, that I propose that the greater the self-reported level of economic dissatisfaction, the less favorable will be the public perception of the Chinese.


In this analysis, the two variables considered are personal economic satisfaction and the public perception of China. Personal economic satisfaction is the independent, nominal variable, while the public perceptions stands as the dependent, nominal variable. Nearly 60% of those citing very good personal economic situations have a “somewhat favorable” or better view of China, whereas only 47.83% of those citing a very bad personal economic satisfaction cite having a “somewhat favorable” or better view of China. The converse is also interesting. Amongst those people indicating a “very good” personal economic situation, only 39.95% have a “somewhat negative” or worse view of China. Of those that indicated a “very bad” personal economic situation, 52.18 also reported a “somewhat unfavorable” or worse opinion of China.

Closer examination of the data reveals what appears to be a positive, linear trend suggesting that indeed the lower the personal economic satisfaction, the more negative the perceptions of China. In reaching this conclusion it is important to consider the favorable/somewhat favorable and very unfavorable/somewhat unfavorable categories of public perceptions as two (rather than four) categories. It is important to note also the two far right columns of the graph. These categories are people who either did not know how to characterize their economic situation, or refused to do so. Let us first consider those who do not know how to categorize their individual economic situation. There are a number of possible explanations for this including inattentive individuals, real concerns about the economic outlook, or a flaw in the survey methodology. In this category it is interesting to note that the “somewhat unfavorable” and “very favorable) categories completely disappear. Thus it would seem that if Americans have uncertainty about their personal economic situations, more than half of those individuals also seem to hold extremely negative views of China and none exhibit “very favorable” views. For these reasons, I would argue that this category does in fact lend to proving the hypothesis. On the other hand, the final category (“Refused”) on the graph does not support nor disprove the hypothesis. There are a variety of reasons that individuals might choose not to answer this question—including people who believe in personal privacy.