Poland). However, these results should be dialectically considered, on the one hand,
if the surveyor raised the question in a relatively“neutral”way, namely that the
surveyor did not set the precondition that China’s military power was“growing”,so
that there were obviously different results for the question; on the other hand,
generally most European countries involved in the survey were actually increas-
ingly concerned about a threat from China’s military power and actually assumed
an increasingly negative attitude towards such a threat.
11.2.11 Whether China’s Economic Growth Constitutes
an Opportunity
According to the data in Table11.12, almost all of the European countries involved
in the survey believed that China’s growing economy posed a threat to them instead
of presenting them with opportunities, while two Central and Eastern European
countries—Bulgaria and Romania—had a slightly moderate attitude towards this
issue and believed that China’s growing economy brought more opportunities than
threats. Those who believed that China’s growing economy posed a threat made up
a very high proportion in France, while Germany, a European country benefiting
most from China’s growing economy, showed a relatively ambiguous attitude, but
people in Germany generally believed that China’s growing economy brought more
threat than opportunities to them.
Table 11.10 Whether China’s growing military power is a good thing or a bad thing for
European countries (Unit%)
2007 2008 2010 2011
Good thing/bad
thingGood thing/bad
thingGood thing/bad
thingGood thing/bad
thing
The UK 12/66 9/74 11/74 13/71
Bulgaria 10/42
The Czech
Republic8/83France 15/84 12/87 12/87 16/83
Germany 10/77 8/81 16/72 12/79
Italy 7/70
Lithuania 11/62
Poland 8/72 9/74 17/65 13/68
Slovakia 10/75
Spain 15/58 7/72 11/68 12/74
Sweden 9/61
SourceData from Pew’s survey
216 L. Zuokui