90% of young Chinese unafraid of Western threat

BEIJING: Approximately 90 percent of the young Chinese participating in the latest survey conducted by the Global Times Research Center believe China should not “look up to the West” anymore, with more people in THE PAST fiVE YEARS EVEN “LOOKING DOWN ON THE West” due to multiple reasons including China’s achievements in its development and the West’s failed handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chinese analysts said the sustainable number of respondents see them and fast development of China as equals while many previously is the core reason why more Chinese looked up to them. are becoming increasingly confident The survey showed 37.2 percent and some key elements have sped of the participants said five years up the process such as the rise of ago, they still believed they should Trumpism in the US, which revealed “look up to the West,” but now, shocking anti-intellectualism, racial only 8.1 percent of these people problems and inefficiencies regardhave the same view. Meanwhile, ing governance among major Westthe people who “look down on ern countries. the West” rose to 41.7 percent

The survey, titled “Changing while only 18.4 percent of them attitudes toward the West among held the same opinion as they did young Chinese people,” gathered five years ago. About 48.3 percent from April 9 to 12 a total of 1,281 of the participants believe they responses covering 129 cities in should see the West equally now. the country. The change of Chinese views

It showed there has been regarding the West will make significant change in attitude China more confident in handling among young people toward provocations and stigmatization Western countries, as a growing as the people will not accept

China tolerating, compromising or remaining silent over issues of concern, said experts.

The West should also learn to deal with China on equal terms, being more respectful toward Chinese public opinion rather than simply labeling increased Chinese confidence with accusations of rampant “nationalism.”

The core reasons that have driven such changes are mostly concerned with China’s achievements in recent years.

For example, 53.8 percent of interviewees chose “China’s successful epidemic prevention and control amid the Covid-19 pandemic,” 40.5 percent selected “China’s cooperation with other countries under the Belt and Road Initiative,” 37.6 percent said “China is the only major economy that keeps growing when the world economy is in a shadow,” and 30.3 percent picked “China’s victory in the poverty alleviation campaign.”

“This shows young Chinese with international perspectives have a rational, fair and impartial evaluation of the West based on facts.

“Such evaluations are progressive and have made a leap in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the image of human rights and freedom built by the West collapsed overnight,” Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Monday.

Chinese people had been looking up to the West since 1840 (when the Qing Dynasty was defeated by Britain in the Opium War) and such a tradition has been kept, as well as modified along with China’s development.

Now, increasingly more young Chinese have begun to view the West as an equal. In this case, it means both the East and the West have their own disadvantages, Shen noted.

Shen also described the past four years of governance under the Trump administration as one major reason for this equilibrium with Trump debunking the myths of the Western political system, with anti-intellectual actions from some of his supporters making the Chinese see that “the beacon of humanity” may have a first-mover advantage but also possesses many problems.