Li Featured on C-Span's Washington Journal

"Using China as a target may provoke a backlash, so politicians need to be careful," said Cheng Li, William R. Kenan Professor of Government, in a Dec. 11 Bloomberg News article. Li, who is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, was commenting on a recent poll that found that the U.S. public has a more favorable impression of China than do congressional staff members and is more positive about trade with China than those staffers and business executives believe they are.

Conducted by Zogby International for the Committee of 100, the survey was co-chaired by Li and was released on Monday, Dec.10. The poll examined U.S. and Chinese attitudes towards each other on issues ranging from the economy to product safety to the upcoming Beijing Olympics, Taiwan, the environment and climate change. It was conducted in both the United States and China from Aug.18-Sept.19.

In response to the poll's release, Li has been engaged in many media interviews. On both Monday, Dec. 10, and Tuesday, Dec. 11, he participated in live hour-long discussions on C-Span. Tuesday's interview was conducted on C-Span's Washington Journal. He was also interviewed by Agence France Presse.

"Despite a lot of China bashing in the media, a majority of Americans believe trade with China benefits America," said Li. Sixty percent of Chinese said they viewed the U.S. favorably. Opinion and business leaders in China were even more positive.

In interviews, Li addressed the misconceptions held by both the Chinese and the Americans. He warned that future leaders in both countries will need to develop an "accurate understanding" of public opinion not only of those held by their people but also those of their counterparts.

According to the survey's sponsor, the Committee of 100, the poll "reveals that American and Chinese mutual perceptions can be best described as a paradox of hope and fear. On one hand, a majority of citizens in the U.S. and China generally hold positive views of each other; both countries broadly recognize the importance of U.S.-China relations and sense their increasing economic interdependence. On the other hand, a strong majority of Americans view China's growing economic and military power as a serious or potential threat, and nearly half of the Chinese feel that the U.S. is trying to prevent their country from becoming a great world power."

The Committee of 100 is a New York-based nonpartisan group of prominent Chinese Americans of which Li is a member.