National Survey Results – “The China Poll”

***NEWS RELEASE***

For Immediate Release
February 3, 2020

CONTACT: Hamilton Strategies, [email protected], Patrick Benner, 610.584.1096, ext. 104, or Deborah Hamilton, ext. 102

‘THE CHINA POLL’ SHOWS AMERICANS ARE RIGHTLY CONCERNED ABOUT CHINA – AND WANT A PRESIDENT WHO IS, TOO

1,000 Likely Voters Want a Robust Response to the Present Danger

MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE – The Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC) today released “The China Poll” conducted last week by one of America’s most perceptive and accurate pollsters, John McLaughlin and Associates. This in-depth national assessment of likely voters’ awareness of the myriad threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party and their attitudes when informed about them is profoundly instructive. It should inform the votes taking place in Iowa’s caucuses today, New Hampshire’s first in the nation primary on February 11^th and decisions made electorally and by policymakers going forward.

The full poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted nationally between January 27-30^th is available at the Committee’s website, www.PresentDangerChina.org. Among the highlights of the responses to its forty-plus questions were the following:

A majority of voters sampled would be “worried were China to become the world’s dominant power,” with an average of 66 percent answering affirmatively to 19 percent answering in the negative and 15 percent not sure.
Overwhelming majorities in every demographic sampled would be concerned “if China controlled space.” (Average: 81% Y, 10% N, 10% NS)
Overwhelming majorities in every demographic sampled were concerned when informed that the United States is dependent on China for “virtually all of our generic drugs, components of other prescription medicines and penicillin” with an average of 83% saying that should not be the case, compared to just 11% saying it should and 7% not sure.
When informed about China’s comprehensive surveillance state “social credit” system, overwhelming majorities in every demographic sampled: would oppose the introduction of such a system into this country (Average: 85% Y, 7% N, 8% NS); did not agree with the export by China of that system to other countries (Average: 13% Y, 77% N, 10% NS); and rejected the idea that “Chinese companies that build social credit technologies should be able to raise money from Americans investors” (Average: 15% Y, 69% N, 16% NS).
Overwhelming majorities in every demographic sampled did not support an initiative now underway by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board effectively to compel military personnel to “invest their retirement funds in Chinese companies that build weapons that may be used against them (Average: 11% Y, 78% N (64% Strongly), 11% Don’t Know/Refused to Answer).
Strong majorities agreed that Chinese companies in our capital markets should “have to satisfy the same requirements as American companies do if they want to raise money in our stock and bond markets” (Average: 72% Y, 16% N, 12% NS).
Overwhelming majorities in all demographics sampled agreed that candidates for the presidency should make clear their positions on the foregoing sorts of questions Average: 85% Y, 8% N, 8% NS);
Majorities in all demographics sampled said that a presidential candidate’s position on China would be important in deciding their vote (59% Y, 33% N, 3% Not at all)
Strong majorities in all demographics sampled would support “a candidate who believes we must not continue doing business with the Chinese in ways that harm our industries, make us dependent upon China and underwrite their military and other hostile behavior” (Average: 63% Y, 21% N, 16% DK/RTA).

Upon the release of The China Poll in the course of a Committee on the Present Danger: China 2020 Battlespace Threat Briefing tour of New Hampshire today, the Committee’s Vice Chairman and former Reagan Assistant Secretary of Defense (acting), Frank Gaffney, said:

“The next Commander-in-Chief – irrespective of party or political philosophy – is going to find that contending with the Chinese Communist Party is Job #1 in the national security, the economic and probably the public health portfolios. What do candidates for the job know of the myriad threats posed by China – and what would they do about them?

“Fortunately, by a seventy-seven point margin, those surveyed in The China Poll commissioned by the Committee on the Present Danger: China want the presidential candidates to answer such questions. And majorities in every tested demographic would support a candidate who offered a more robust response to the China threat.”

The next CPDC 2020 Battlespace Threat Briefing will take place in Columbia, South Carolina on February 18, 2020. Additional Threat Briefings will be added in the coming weeks.

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To interview representatives from the Committee on the Present Danger: China, contact [email protected], Patrick Benner, 610.584.1096, ext. 104, or Deborah Hamilton, ext. 102.

Click here to download the poll results.

CPDC 2020 – National Perceptions on China January 2020-M&A