more like the world's biggest threat :
China seen as biggest threat to stability
By Ben Hall in Paris and Geoff Dyer in Shanghai
Monday Apr 14 2008 20:00
China has overtaken the US as the biggest threat to global stability
in the eyes of Europeans, according to a Harris opinion poll for the
Financial Times.
The recent wave of protests and riots in Tibet and the ensuing Chinese
crackdown, together with competition from cheap Chinese ex****ts,
appear to have dramatically hardened opinion, with the pro****tion of
Europeans who saw China as the biggest threat almost doubling since
last year.
The FT/Harris poll, carried out between March 27 and April 8, found an
average of 35 per cent of respondents in five European countries saw
China as a bigger threat to global stability than any other state. In
the US, 31 per cent of respondents also named China, putting it way
above Iran and North Korea, which were both perceived as greater
threats last year.
The poll was carried out shortly after the unrest in Tibet and during
the early stages of the controversial Olympic torch relay. But there
were already rising tensions between the European Union and China over
trade issues and exchange rates.
Italians were the most concerned about China with 47 per cent naming
the country as the biggest threat, compared with 26 per cent when the
question was last asked in June 2007. The Italian reaction was
primarily an expression of resentment at unfair competition from
Chinese manufacturers, said Marta Dass=F9, director of the Aspen
Institute Italia, a Rome-based think-tank. "China is a symbol of what
Italians dislike about globalisation," she said.
The latest Harris poll found that China was the biggest threat for 36
per cent in France, up from 22 per cent last year, 35 per cent in
Germany, up from 18 per cent, and 27 per cent in the UK, up from 16
per cent. All three last year ranked the US as a bigger threat.
Only inhabitants of Spain still considered the US to be a bigger
threat than China, by 41 per cent to 28 per cent.
On Apr 24, 10:20=A0am, RichAsianKid <richasian...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
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