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By Jia Cheng Nearly half of Chinese respondents to a poll said the demise of Osama bin Laden would not affect cooperation between China and the US, and that the two countries share more in common than differences. The view was captured in a recent poll in which many interviewees also thought the US would maintain its focus on terrorism in the Middle East, rather than increasing conflicts with China. The telephone poll, which focused on the relationship between China and the US after Bin Laden's death, was conducted by the Global Poll Center under the Global Times. Pollsters interviewed adults in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Changsha, Xi'an and Shenyang between Friday and Sunday. Among 800 respondents, 49.1 percent said that China and the US would continue to share more interests than differences after Bin Laden's demise, while 35.8 percent felt that his death would refocus dormant tensions between the two nations. Su Hao, the head of the Strategy and Conflict Management Research Center at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times that frictions between the two countries would certainly worsen in the decades to come, especially concerning the South China Sea area. However, he added that the two countries cooperate effectively in space, and pursue common goals toward peace and stability, such as on the Korean Peninsula or concerning the Iranian nuclear program. However, it is hard to say which of frictions or cooperation would be more dominant, he added. Apart from those who insisted that more frictions would arise in the next decade, 27.3 percent said the US would treat China as a foe, but 36.7 percent of the people still thought that the US would continue to focus on Middle Eastern terrorism. Su said the killing of Osama bin Laden marks a major victory in the US' decade-long war on terror and will also influence the adjustment of Washington's global strategy. However, such adjustments had begun under the Bush Administration when he ordered all departments to review their stance on China. The biggest challenge to the adjustment would be the political upheavals in the Middle East, which puts the order established by the US and Israel in long-term jeopardy, he added. Moreover, the poll also showed that about 46.5 percent of the people were comparatively calm upon hearing of Bin Laden's death, and the US won the goodwill of only 10 percent from his death. |
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