11.2.9 How China Addresses Climate Change
Addressing climate change is an important issue in today’s global governance and
also the focus of high attention worldwide. Regarding this issue, European coun-
tries have always criticized China for not playing very good roles and for not
making responsible commitments concerning the issues of energy conservation and
emission reduction, as evidenced by relevant surveys (see Table11.9).
According to the results of the survey, common people in all European countries
involved in the survey, except Bulgaria and Romania, believed that China would
play more“negative”roles in addressing climate change. This was more aggressive
in such countries involved in the survey as the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland,
etc. where a very few people believed that China would play“positive”roles.
Surveys on the Europeans’feelings about China’s responsibilities lead to the
following result: China was a large irresponsible country. Although most Europeans
believed that China would play“positive”roles in managing the world economy,
they believed that China’s roles in getting rid of poverty and addressing climate
change were“negative”. However, the common Europeans’views should also be
dialectically considered; as shown by analysis in the Transatlantic Trends survey,
the Europeans had more than an expectation: they hoped that China would assume
more responsibilities according to the scale and level of its economic development.
11.2.10 The China Threat
Surveys on this issue mainly concentrated on the following topics: growth of
China’s military force, growth of China’s economy, etc.
11.2.10.1 Whether China’s Growing Militarily Power Poses a Threat
Both Pew and the German Marshall Fund of the United States conducted long-term
intensive follow-up surveys on this issue; the results of the surveys are shown in
Tables11.10and11.11.
According to the survey in Table11.10, common people in all European
countries involved in the survey had a negative attitude towards China’s growing
military force and few believed that this was a“good thing”; they especially
stressed that China’s growing military power may pose a threat to regional peace
and stability.
According to the data in Table11.11, the Transatlantic Trends survey did not
arrive at a “one-sided”result as Pew’s survey did: most European countries
involved in the survey believed that China’s military power did not pose any threat
and those who believed that China’s military power posed a threat were fewer than
those who believed that China’s military power did not pose a threat (except
214 L. Zuokui