"More than four decades after Nixon met Mao, the relationship between the U.S. and China has reached a pivotal moment. To date, even as China has become more powerful and present in our lives, Americans have generally found it to be an unsatisfying 'enemy.' For most of the past decade, the number of Americans who reported having a favorable view of China hovered around fifty per cent, according to the Pew Research Center. But, in the past three years, the favorable number has declined to thirty-five per cent, and the unfavorable has risen to fifty-four per cent. In China, favorable views of the U.S. are at a similar level, around fifty per cent-neither firmly in favor nor opposed. Viewed one way, relations between the world's two most powerful countries, the U.S. and China, should be a rare point of calm in a world aflame, from Syria to Ukraine." writes The New Yorker.
The Wall Street Journal reports, "China is seen increasingly favorably by people around the world, and most see it as eventually replacing the U.S. as the world's superpower. Those are some of the findings of a new survey by Pew Research Center, which polled more than 45,000 adults in 40 countries earlier this year to gauge how people around the world view the U.S. and China. In 2014, a median of 49% of countries polled had a positive view of China; by the time the Pew poll was conducted earlier this year, among the 35 countries also polled the year prior, that figure had risen to 54%. In Asia, where countries have bulked up their militaries despite a Chinese diplomatic offensive, respondents continue to feel more positively about the U.S. (66%) - which is seen as a counterweight in the region - than their larger neighbor (57%). The U.S. is also more popular in sub-Saharan Africa, though 70% of locals also express a positive view of China. (The Middle East was the sole region polled where respondents had a better impression of China than the U.S.)"
Reuters reports, "the United States on Tuesday said cyber theft sponsored by the Chinese government was a major problem and stressed the need to keep Asian sea lanes open at annual talks with China. In opening statements at the wide-ranging Strategic and Economic Dialogue forum in Washington, both sides expressed a desire for constructive bilateral relations, with China saying the two countries could manage differences and should avoid confrontation. But tensions over security matters threatened to hamper efforts to deepen the massive economic ties between the two countries. China and the United States are negotiating a bilateral investment treaty. 'On cyberspace, in particular, we remain deeply concerned about Chinese government-sponsored cyber-enabled theft,' U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said during the forum."