Seventy-seven percent of Americans have a favorable view of Taiwan, while about 41 percent think China is the US’ “greatest enemy,” a recent Gallup poll showed.
Taiwan was the sixth-most favored nation among Americans.
It was the fourth consecutive year Americans named China as the US’ greatest threat, although the figure declined 9 percentage points from a year earlier, the US-based polling company said in a news release on Monday.
Photo: Screen grab from Gallup’s Web site
The poll found that 83 percent of US residents had a favorable view of Canada and Japan, followed by the UK at 82 percent, Germany at 79 percent and France at 78 percent.
Of the poll’s respondents, 13 percent had an unfavorable view of Taiwan, 1 percentage point more than Japan, which the fewest Americans found unfavorable.
Meanwhile, 26 percent of Americans named Russia as their greatest enemy, a 6 percentage point decline from last year, Gallup said.
Nine percent felt Iran was the US’ greatest threat, up from 1 percent last year.
Americans’ increased concern about Iran is likely linked to Tehran being featured in news reports as giving support to Houthi rebels attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Hamas battling Israel in the Gaza Strip, Gallup said.
Five percent of Americans think that the US is its own greatest enemy, the highest figure Gallup has recorded since first asking the question in 2001, it said.
In addition, 2 percent named Ukraine and Israel as enemies of the US — the two countries did not register with respondents in last year’s poll.
The nationwide poll was conducted from Feb. 1 through Feb. 20 among US residents over the age of 18, with 1,016 valid samples taken and a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
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