common people in the EU countries have. Perceptions of China by Europeanélites
should also be incorporated; however, given that they are covered in other chapters
of this book, they are no longer repeated in this survey report.
Second, contents of perceptions of China. European perceptions of China are
relatively diverse and cover very extensive aspects. Taking only 2008 as an example,
according to incomplete statistics by the Author, overseas agencies conducted sur-
veys on perceptions of China in the world (including European countries) about 30
times. For example, the Pew Research Center in the United States carried out surveys
on a series of issues including the rapid development of China’s economy, the
Olympic Games, the Wenchuan earthquake, climate and environmental issues,
human rights issues, etc. in 2008; the UK think tank Legatum conducted a Prosperity
Index survey; Gallup performed a survey on the quality of Chinese products, the
work performance of Chinese leaders, freedom and the quality of living of global
citizens (including Chinese citizens), etc. The Author systematically sorted and
analyzed many public opinion surveys to roughly provide a basic outline of
European perceptions of China, specifically focusing on the following core aspects:
feelings about China (the degree of favorability and the degree of recognition of
China), China’s responsibilities (whether the interests of other countries are con-
sidered), threats from China (whether military and economic growth constitutes a
threat), China’s future developmental trends (whether China will replace the USA,
whether China will become a great unique economic and military power, etc.). These
four aspects cover the basic contents of European perceptions of China.
Third, it is selection of the time range to examine. China gradually became the
hot topic on which international public opinion agencies focused as from 2003,
while large-scale intensive surveys occurred after 2005. This is very obvious as
shown both by the American Pew’s Global Attitudes survey and by the
Transatlantic Trends survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United
States and the British BCC’s Global Opinion Poll. Therefore, although this survey
report takes 2003 as the starting point, its studies mainly cover the time after 2005.
Finally, selection of survey data. Data used in this survey report mainly come
from surveys of international authoritative agencies. Relevant surveys were avail-
able in large numbers and there were many concurrent programs,^1 thus only
authoritative, continuous surveys were selected in this survey report. The Author
mainly derived data from surveys conducted by the American agency Pew, the
German Marshall Fund of the United States, the British BBC and the Canadian
GlobeScan.^2 It should be stressed that citation of the above data by the Author only
(^1) For specifics, refer tohttp://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/polls.php.
(^2) The Pew’Global Attitudes Project carried out surveys on the degree of favorability on the part of
the European common people as from 2002 but started surveys on perceptions of China's image as
from 2005 and have continued these until now. The Transatlantic Trends survey conducted by the
German Marshall Fund of the United States started in 2002 and enjoys good continuity, covering
European perceptions of China. The Global Opinion Poll conducted by the British BBC and the
Canadian GlobeScan also enjoys relatively good continuity, covering issues in a relatively con-
centrated way.
202 L. Zuokui