Americans see China as a greater threat than Russia: poll

A clear majority of Americans view China as the greatest foreign threat to the United States, a recent poll revealed.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans, 61%, selected the Asian superpower as the greatest foreign adversary to Washington in a recent Quinnipiac University survey. That figure nearly is nearly triple the 22% of respondents who picked Russia.

Moscow is currently waging war against Ukraine while lawmakers are increasingly divided over sending additional aid to Kyiv. That division is more pronounced in the general public. President Joe Biden has offered diplomatic support for Ukraine will securing both funding and military supplies to aid in the war effort. The survey indicated that 45% approved of his approach while 47% disapproved.

The issue appears to fading from American priorities, as only 6% of respondents saw it as the paramount issue facing the U.S. while 29% chose inflation, 10% picked immigration, and another 10% said gun violence.

China, meanwhile, is more prominent among American worries. 

Almost half, 49%, of respondents indicated support for a national ban on embattled social media platform TikTok, while 42% opposed such a move. The app has faced intense scrutiny over security concerns, including fears that the Chinese government may access American user data.

The app's parent company, the Beijing-based ByteDance, enjoys close ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and lawmakers fear the company cannot guarantee Beijing will not intrude in its affairs.

Numerous states have banned the app's use on official devices.

Beyond tech issues, American is embroiled in diplomatic hostilities with Beijing over its claims to sovereignty over Taiwan, maritime disputes in the South China Sea, and Beijing's support for the Russian war effort.

Concerns over Chinese malfeasances has increasingly become a bipartisan issue, with the Senate unanimously voting in March to declassify intelligence related to the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated as the result of a lab leak in Wuhan.

Conducted March 9-13, the survey questioned 1,795 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of +/- 2.3%.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.