Nearly half of likely U.S. voters view China as an enemy and expect a war, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Thursday.
The survey comes a week after the U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that Beijing said was a wayward "civilian airship" used for meteorology.
China then declined a request for a secure call between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, after the incident and filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Embassy.
The poll of 900 likely U.S. voters found that tensions were rising:
- 48% say China is an enemy of the U.S. while 36% say it's somewhere between being an ally and an enemy.
- 38% say war with China is unlikely in the next five years.
- 34% rate President Joe Biden as good or excellent for his handling of issues related to China, while 47% rate him as doing a poor job.
- Only 33% of Democrats say China is an enemy of the U.S., compared to 66% of Republicans and 46% of voters not affiliated with either major party who say China is a U.S. enemy.
- Significantly more Republicans (58%) than Democrats (44%) or unaffiliated voters (40%) say it's at least somewhat likely that the U.S. will go to war against China in the next five years.
Rasmussen conducted the survey Feb. 5-7. The margin of sampling error is plus/minus 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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