Part 8: Survey Analysis

1. China's national image is improving, with its state leader being a new highlight. Compared with the past, China's overall image is being increasingly recognized by the global community. Most overseas people are optimistic about China's future development, with its robust economic growth and fairly high living standards. The global awareness and recognition of Chinese President Xi Jinping is a highlight of the survey. He boasts the fourth-highest popularity among the nine state leaders, and his capability for handling domestic and international affairs comes second both in China and abroad.

2. Developing countries have a higher appreciation of China's development.

Overall, developing countries have better impressions of China. Specifically, 68% of their respondents agree with the Chinese concepts, while the figure is 38% in developed countries. The developing world also has better views on China's economic influence. On China's military development, most people in developing countries regard China as an important force for maintaining world order and peace, while there are still people who believe in the "China military threat" in developed countries. Regarding China's development path and the China model, most people in developing countries think the China model is "an innovation based on China's history, culture and reality", while in developed countries most people think it is "a model of centralization led by the Communist Party of China".

3. Overseas youth have more positive comments about China.

The survey reveals a big difference among different age groups. The young are more familiar with China: 34% of the respondents aged 18-35 know about China, while the percentage of those aged 36-50 and 51-65 is 28% and 20%, respectively. In terms of their impressions of China, the scores by these three groups are 6.3, 5.8 and 5.5, respectively, showing that those aged 18-35 have a more positive attitude toward China. They are also more optimistic about China's future. The percentage of young respondents who think "China will overtake the US to become a world superpower" and "China's economy will keep growing at a rapid rate" is much higher than that in the other two groups.

4. Differences in perceptions between Chinese and international respondents still persist.

In this survey we asked the same questions of both domestic and overseas respondents, and found that the Chinese people have more positive comments about their own country. Generally speaking, the Chinese respondents were more positive about such aspects as China's rapid economic growth, national unity and active role in taking up international responsibilities, while the overseas respondents had more negative impressions of China, chiefly expressed as ethnic conflicts and political chaos. Concerning corruption in the CPC, the Chinese people trust in the Party's strong self-discipline and self-purification capacity despite serious corruption. However, in the eyes of overseas respondents, serious corruption and "stern-faced and unapproachable" are a shared impression of the CPC.

5. Sino-foreign relations influence overseas opinions about China.

In the eight foreign countries covered by the survey, it was found that bilateral relations with China have a direct impact on their people's evaluations of China. Take Russia and Japan for example. The Sino-Russian relationship developed rapidly in 2014, with close cooperation in many fields, and this is well reflected in the Russian people's positive views of China's political, economic, military, scientific and technological development. On the whole, the Russians spoke the highest of China among the eight countries polled, while as a result of the continuous cooling of China-Japan relations in 2014, the Japanese evaluation of China worsened, especially in terms of suspicion of China's military build-up. They also had negative comments on the international initiatives China has proposed and international activities China has hosted. Overall, the Japanese had the lowest evaluation of China among the respondents of the eight countries.