China-EU_Relations_Reassessing_the_China-EU_Comprehensive_Strategic_Partnership

survey, thus there are some problems in the vertical comparison. However,
undoubtedly, all the surveys in the three years indicated that the Chinese common
people tended to consider the EU more as an ordinary partner rather than as a friend
or a foe of China (see Table10.3).
On the whole, the degree of favorability was on the increase in the period
2008 – 2010, but has declined from 2011 until now. Concerning the positioning of
relations, the Chinese common people changed their attitude from a positive one to
a neutral one.

10.4 Evaluation of How the Chinese Common People

View the EU’s International Influence

In response to the question“To what extent do you think the following countries
and the EU have influence on international affairs?”, in the 2010 survey, 25.6 and
47.9 % respondents believed that the EU had a“very great influence”and a“rel-
atively great influence”respectively. For four countries/territories including the
USA, Russia, Japan and the EU, respondents ranked them in the order of decreasing

Table 10.1 Comparisons of the Chinese common people’s feeling towards Russia, the USA,
Europe and Japan in 2008 and 2010 (Unit%)

Very good Relatively

good

Fair Relatively

poor

Very poor No

response

2008/2010 2008/2010 2008/2010 2008/2010 2008/2010 2008/2010

Russia 11.0/8.4 42.3/38.4 38.4/45.3 3.1/3.4 0.9/0.7 4.3/3.9

The

USA

4.1/6.9 23.4/28.1 44.5/47.1 18.4/11.4 6.4/3.3 3.2/3.2

The EU 5.0/9.5 29.2/38.3 48.6/42.4 7.8/3.6 1.6/0.9 7.8/5.3

Japan 1.5/2.8 8.5/13.6 29.4/39.5 30.0/22.0 26.7/18.3 3.9/3.8

Table 10.2 The degree of favorability on the part of the Chinese common people towards the EU
(Unit%)

2007 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Favorable impression 40 39 47 32 33 37
Unfavorable impression 40 44 39 47 50 46
SourceData from Pew’s survey.http://www.pewglobal.org/database/indicator/28/group/11/

Table 10.3 How the Chinese common people position relations with the EU (Unit%)

Year Friend Partner Stakeholder Competitor Foe Ordinary

relations

Other

words

2007 2.7 18.5 56.4 18.7 2.2 – 0.9

2008 13.9 67.1 – 9.6 0.3 – 9.1

2010 3.9 63.7 – 15.4 0.6 4.4 12.0

10 The Chinese Perception of the EU 191