SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Whether or not they decide anything on AI issues, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is heading to the White House to meet President Trump tomorrow. People in the U.S. are engaged in a lot of self-reflection right now, as is often the case during election years. A recent Pew survey showed a majority of Americans think the country's best days are in the past. So what is the perception from America's biggest competitor? NPR China correspondent Jennifer Pak went out in Shanghai to find out.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNIFER PAK, BYLINE: On a sunny Saturday afternoon, half a dozen Chinese professionals gather in central Shanghai to practice English.
(CROSSTALK)
PAK: It's an English-speaking club. Most of them were born in the 1980s and '90s, when China was just starting to open up to the outside world. Participant Julia Wang (ph) says she has visited the U.S. for work, Chicago, and thinks it's fine.
JULIA WANG: (Non-English language spoken).
PAK: "The U.S. is indeed a more developed country. But compared to China," she says, "and specifically Shanghai, I don't think there's a huge difference." Another participant, Cross Jiao (ph), works in IT, an area of competition between China and the U.S. "No doubt," he says, "the U.S. is at the frontier in AI and other tech."
CROSS JIAO: (Non-English language spoken).
PAK: "But today, if you compare internet companies in China and the U.S.," he says, "Chinese firms show a much stronger ability to meticulously iterate and refine their products. Here on the ground, American dominance is fading."
DAMON HANSEN: Yeah. Maybe what we can do while we're waiting for some of the latecomers...
PAK: Seattle native Damon Hansen (ph), who's leading the English discussion group, says attitudes have shifted since he first arrived in China in 2013. Now, he says, fewer Chinese he meets want to study in the U.S. or even visit.
HANSEN: And I find this to be true also for my mother-in-law, because I married a Chinese person. My mother-in-law is always, like, worried about violence and guns and stuff because she sees that on Chinese social media.
PAK: Chinese public sentiment towards the U.S. has been dipping for the last decade, since Trump was first elected. Nick Zeller is with the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which tracks Chinese public opinion.
NICK ZELLER: Chinese people tend to rank the United States very low in favorability, the low 30s out of 100.
PAK: And he says almost three-quarters of Chinese people they've surveyed see the U.S. as a national security threat.
ZELLER: Always the top is interference in cross-strait relations with Taiwan and then U.S. interference in international trade. So tariffs, trade war.
PAK: And he says younger Chinese under 40 are far more hawkish towards the U.S. than their parents' generation. Though that doesn't mean American soft power has lost its charm entirely. On a bustling Shanghai street filled with bars, 20-something Charlie Ma (ph) is shipping gin and tonic with friends. He says he's ready to quit his job as a flight attendant to work in the U.S. He knows a visa is difficult to get.
CHARLIE MA: (Non-English language spoken).
PAK: "I really like American culture," he says, "especially singers like Mariah Carey. I love R&B music. I really want to go to the U.S." He isn't deterred even after I told him that, just like in China, young people in America are anxious about finding jobs.
(Non-English language spoken).
MA: (Non-English language spoken).
PAK: "The sources of anxiety are just different. In China, anxiety comes from intense competition," he says. "The effort we put in doesn't match the income we receive. But in the U.S., the anxiety is more about feeling like you're not doing as well as before." And I've met plenty of people like him since Trump's first term, who, if they have the means, and visa permitting, still want to go to the U.S. It is contradictory, says Zeller. Chinese people may see the U.S. as a threat to China as a country.
ZELLER: And that has less direct bearing on, do I like U.S. cultural products? Do I want to go to the U.S. to study? The frustration is that both are true.
PAK: The good news, he says, most Chinese people they survey want their government to cooperate with the U.S. in trade, tech and security.
Jennifer Pak, NPR News, Shanghai.
(SOUNDBITE OF JAY-Z AND MEMPHIS BLEEK SONG, "COMING OF AGE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
