The Complexities of Economic Soft Power: The U.S.-China Case

Abstract

This chapter takes an in-depth look at Americans’ perceptions of-and reactions to—China’s economy and U.S.-China economic relations, exploring how China does, or does not, exert economics-based soft power upon the American public. In order to do this, the analysis builds on the U.S. soft-power survey2 but also goes beyond it, using data from dozens of other polls and surveys from many different survey organizations—in fact using all the relevant survey data from recent years that could be found.