Europeans, Americans fret over China's rise: survey

(BRUSSELS) - A majority of Europeans and Americans view China's emergence as a major economic power as a threat, with only the British seeing an opportunity, according to a survey released Wednesday.

Europeans were slightly more worried than Americans with 55 percent concerned about China's rise compared with 51 percent in the US, the results of the survey from the German Marshall Fund found.

That was down slightly from 2006 when 59 percent of both European and American respondents reported feeling threatened by China.

However, the report accompanying the survey said that "the European average is tempered by the extremely bullish sentiment of British respondents" towards China.

Only 34 percent of British respondents said that the Asian giant was a threat, while nearly 60 percent described China as an opportunity.

At the other end of the spectrum, 64 percent of French respondents, 62 percent of Slovaks, 60 percent of Italians, 59 percent of Poles, and 57 percent of Germans reported feeling threatend by China's growing economic role on the world stage.

Pollsters TNS Opinion carried out the survey for the US foundation in September among 1,000 people in six European countries and the United States.

With public concern about China persistently high, US and EU authorities are stepping up pressure on Beijing over trade issues because they consider that the Asian giant benefits from an unlevel playing field.

Both the United States and the EU say that China benefits from an artificially low exchange rate controlled by the state and that their exports run up against unnecessary obstacles as well as copyright violation.

A high-level EU delegation brought those concerns to Beijing last week and a similar US mission is due in the Chinese capital next week.