Long-term survey reveals Chinese government satisfaction
Understanding what Chinese citizens think about their own government has proven elusive to scholars, policymakers, and businesspeople alike outside of the country. Opinion polling in China is heavily scrutinized by the government, with foreign polling firms prohibited from directly conducting surveys. Given China’s global rise in the economic, military, and diplomatic spheres, understanding public opinion there has arguably never been more important. A new study from the Ash Center fills in this gap for the first time, providing a long-term view of how Chinese citizens view their government at the national, as well as the regional and local levels. What started as an exercise in building a set of teaching tools for an executive education class eventually transformed into the longest academic survey of Chinese public opinion conducted by a research institution outside of China. “Gathering reliable, long-term opinion survey data from across the country is a real obstacle,” said Ash Center China...