Optimism to Sino-U.S. ties remains: poll

Trump may adopt tougher trade policies than Obama: expert

Only about one-third of respondents to an online survey on Wednesday were pessimistic about the future of Sino-U.S. ties despite U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's remarks on reconsidering the one-China policy.

Among some 6,000 respondents, 35 percent held a pessimistic view of the future of the Sino-U.S. relations, while 31.9 percent of them think bilateral ties would not experience any big changes, according to an online news portal affiliated with the Chinese version of the Global Times, huanqiu.com, on Wednesday.

The poll covered their reaction to Trump's latest remarks on the one-China policy, the future direction of Sino-U.S. relations and whether Trump will "make the U.S. great again."

Meanwhile, 46.9 percent said China needs to take countermeasures in response to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's remarks to reconsider the one-China policy, since they have jeopardized the foundation of the Sino-U.S. relationship."

More than 28.8 percent think Trump wants to bargain with China while another 20.7 percent believe this was Trump's attempt to test China's bottom line.

"Chinese Net users always take a tough stand on safeguarding the one-China policy, but some of them failed to fully understand that Trump wants to use it as a bargaining chip to force China to make compromises on trade issues," Liu Weidong, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of the China Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Although 47.8 percent of the respondents believe that Trump's victory in the presidential election would be better for China than a Hillary Clinton's win, 2,350 said that "Trump has not treated China as well as predicted," according to the survey.

"Some Chinese netizens may have had wrong expectations about Trump during the campaign and now they feel disappointed. However, we should not prejudge Trump's policies toward China based solely on his current remarks," said Liu.

He noted that Trump may adopt tougher trade policies with China than President Barack Obama, but avoid issues in which the U.S. has no direct interests.

The result of the online inquiry echoed Liu's remarks. Among the seven choices as to which field will be most affected under Trump's administration, 64.1 percent said trade and currency, 26.9 percent went for "the Taiwan question," 4.4 percent chose "the South China Sea issue," 0.2 percent selected "issues concerning the Tibet and Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous regions," and 0.1 percent picked "human rights" and "hacking problems."

As for the measures China should take if Trump continues to challenge the one-China policy, 53.3 percent of the respondents said China should cease cooperation with the U.S. on major issues as a warning, take measures on Taiwan and implement the Anti-Secession Law.

About 80 percent of the respondents agree that its democratic system did not help the U.S. choose a great leader and 77.8 percent say Trump doesn't have the ability to make the U.S. great again.