Why Generation Z is less likely to view China as a threat

Recent research on American attitudes toward China reveal stark generational divides. 

When asked if China’s growing presence on the world stage is a “critical threat,” 34 percent of Gen Z respondents agreed, compared to 43 percent of Millennials, according to an August survey from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. 

Older generations were much warier, with 56 percent of Gen X and 62 percent of Boomers concerned about Chinese dominance. 

Craig Kafura, the director of public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, suggests that older and younger Americans have simply seen different Chinas. 

“For baby boomers, for Gen Xers, these are folks who remember the Cold War. They remember China as this major Communist rival,” Kafura told The Hill.

For Gen Z in particular, Kafura said, “China is a booming economy. Maybe your first introduction to China was the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.”

“That’s a very different mental image of China than somebody who grew up the same time as Mao,” he added. 

Americans of all ages, however, are warming up to their rival in the East. 

In new data released Wednesday, Pew Research Center asked respondents to rate their feelings on China using a 0 (very cold) to 100 (very warm) scale and found that, on average, Americans give China a 37. In 2021, just after the coronavirus pandemic, that figure was 28. 

The survey also found that younger generations hold a more positive opinion of Beijing.

Laura Silver, an associate director at Pew who led the research, provided an explanation for the generational differences similar to Kafura’s. 

“Older people knew China as kind of Red China, China under Mao, Tiananmen. Younger people have never had that context,” she told The Hill. Instead, Gen Z knows China as a “superpower that rivals the United States.”

“And I do think that those types of differences in terms of what you knew about China as you were coming of age do play a role and speak to the fact that we’ve seen age differences in our polling for two decades,” she added. 

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