optimistic”attitude. However, overall, those who took a positive attitude weremany
more than those who took a negative attitude. This shows that although the Chinese
people’s views about the prospects for China-EU relations were positive in general,
these views developed in a conservative direction (see Table10.8).
Overall, the Chinese common people took a relatively positive attitude towards
the current situation and towards the prospects for China-EU relations, but this
attitude showed a downward trend, and a cautious attitude became evident.
10.5.1 The ChineseÉlites’Perceptions of the EU
10.6 The ChineseÉlites’Degree of Favorability Towards
the EU
In a comparison of the four largest international actors, the USA, the EU, Japan and
Russia, the Chineseélites had the best impression of the EU (“relatively good”plus
“very good”). In terms of the two indicators,“very good”and“relatively good”, the
EU was ranked No. 1, followed by the USA, Russia and Japan in that order (see
Table10.9).
So, how do the Chineseélites position relations with the EU?
In response to the question“How do you describe the current China-EU rela-
tions?” in the 2010 survey, most of the respondents chose “stakeholder”,
accounting for 63.8 %, followed by those who chose“partner”, accounting for
28.9 %, while very fewélites chose the term“friend”to describe the relationship
Table 10.8 The Chinese common people’s views concerning the prospects for China-EU
relations (Unit%)
Year Very
optimisticCautiously
optimisticNeutral Relatively
pessimisticVery
pessimisticNo
response
2010 5.27 55.72 28.01 1.60 0.15 9.25
2008 17.30 60.85 11.32 0.97 0.71 8.84
2007 21.90 42.70 17.10 4.70 1.00 12.60Table 10.9 The Chineseélites’degree of favorability towards the EU in 2010 (Unit%)
Very poor Not very good Relatively good Very good
The USA 4 27.8 54.7 12.2
The EU 1.4 11.7 67.7 16.3
Japan 25.3 37.6 32.1 3.3
Russia 4.1 31.4 52.3 8.1
SourceBased ondata from the EU’s 7th Framework Programme in 2010
194 L. Zuokui