DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
January 12, 2005 11:38 p.m.

HONG KONG -- The growth of China's increasingly open economy has helped transform U.S. attitudes toward the country in a strikingly positive way, according to a new survey from the U.S.

A solid majority of respondents - 59% - said they have a favorable impression of China, compared with less than half in a similar survey done in 1994.

Perhaps more surprisingly, 48% viewed China as an important ally of the U.S., a sizable proportion that lagged only the U.K., Japan, and Israel. The U.S. and China aren't formal allies.

"This was unfathomable 15 or 30 years ago," said pollster John Zogby, whose firm Zogby International conducted the survey.

The U.S.-China relationship is "undergoing a transition," he said. "The economics of change have had the greatest impact on perceptions among opinion leaders and the general public."

That is despite the frequent criticism of China from both sides of the U.S. political spectrum. Union leaders and some businesses have complained that low-priced imports from China are swamping the domestic market and taking U.S. jobs. Yet the survey found that the economic relationship between China and the U.S. was seen as largely positive.

Though a large majority of respondents said China did cause job losses in the U.S., a somewhat smaller majority of 63% also said that the country's low-cost products are good for U.S. consumers. And a striking 73% of people agreed that trade with China benefits the U.S. economy.

"There are lurking shadows here. This survey isn't 100% positive," Zogby said. He said the polls show that the U.S. public is still concerned about China's poor human rights record, and noted that 57% of respondents said China's economic growth is hurting the environment globally.

Though few see China as an imminent danger to the U.S., 51% of the poll's respondents said it did pose a potential military threat.

"Because of China's size, it would have to be regarded as a potential threat down the road," Zogby said, noting that other polls show Russia is also seen as a potential but not actual threat.

Past worries about China's rivalry with the U.S. have also been eclipsed by the U.S. administration's heavy focus on terrorism and the Middle East, Zogby said.

Other polls show Americans now rate North Korea as the top military threat to the U.S. - which helps China's standing because of its participation in talks aimed at convincing the regime to abandon nuclear weapons.

The Zogby poll surveyed 1,202 randomly selected U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 2.9%. To supplement that survey, pollsters also conducted interviews with 203 "opinion leaders" from business, academia and the media.

The survey was commissioned by the Committee of 100, a Chinese-American organization, and the results were released Thursday at a conference by the committee held in Hong Kong.