China has now overtaken the United States as the greatest perceived threat to global stability in the eyes of Europeans, according to the opinion poll commissioned by the Financial Times.
The poll, carried out by the Harris agency between March 27 and April 8 and published on Tuesday, found that 35 percent of respondents in the five largest EU states see China as a bigger threat to world stability than any other state. Last year, that figure was 19 percent, and in 2006 it was only 12 percent. In contrast, the US has slipped back into second place, with 29 percent of the respondents viewing it as the biggest threat, down from 32 percent in 2007.
Last year, the story was that our poor image was all Bush's fault and his war in Iraq.
This poll is really about Europeans and not threats to stability. When there is war, Europeans ill equipped to cope with war quake at whatever they see as causing the instability.
So last year Europeans saw our defense of Iraq as destabilizing when without us there fighting, our enemies might win and settle down the region into a sort-of stability. That settling down the region would mean jihadi despotism is irrelevant. Stability is what matters to Europeans regardless of why it is "stable" and doesn't require Europe to exert itself.
And now China is seen as threatening the peace with their Tibet crackdowns. Since we are not involved, we can't be blamed even in the homeland of nuance.
Next year, if we warn China to back off from oppressing Tibetans or suffer the consequences, we'd again be seen as upsetting the stability the Europeans crave so badly.
UPDATE: What really gets me is that the attitude of our Left on this topic. Their take (and their sympathetic media) on this issue is this:
If foreigners don't like us, it is because we've done something to cause that dislike. So we must change ourselves to remove the cause of dislike (or hate, for that matter).
If we don't like foreigners, it is because we are xenophobic and/or racist. So we must change ourselves to eliminate our horrible attitudes toward foreigners which is the cause of our dislike.
UPDATE: Actually, it is pretty amazing that our reputation is going up abroad considering how our Congress under the Nuanced Americans has been eye gouging our friends:
I've pointed out recently how House Democrats have threatened to block Canadian oil imports. The proverbial thumb-in-the-eye of Colombia has also been well-chronicled. Now comes news that House Democrats may soon get the chance to kill the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. That's because Korea has conceded on the one issue that is preventing the accord from coming up for a vote[.]
But it is so much simpler to believe President Bush is the source of our problems.
