U.S. Voters Want Leaders to Do More to Protect Americans From China’s Policies

Tags Trade with China

Washington, D.C. – As President Biden prepares to address the nation Tuesday in his State of the Union speech, registered voters are looking for concrete action from the U.S. government to protect them from China’s threats.

Eighty-five percent of registered U.S. voters expressed concern about China’s cybersecurity and economic threats to the United States, a recent Alliance for American Manufacturing poll conducted by Morning Consult finds.

The polling also shows that there is widespread bipartisan agreement among voters that elected federal officials should do more to protect U.S. labor and economic interests from China. Voters overwhelmingly want President Biden (67%), congressional Republicans (66%), and congressional Democrats (65%) to do more to protect Americans from China’s economic policies. And strong majorities of voters identify China’s economic (85%), cybersecurity (85%), human rights violations (76%), and military (74%) threats as very or somewhat worrying. 

Additionally, the majority of voters (57%) support the revocation of China’s permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status with the United States. Meanwhile, three-fourths of voters said the United States should maintain “Section 301” tariffs on certain Chinese goods.

Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul said:

“Voters overwhelmingly want Congress and the president to do more to mitigate the risks they see from China’s policies. This goes well beyond forming a select committee or responding to a specific surveillance threat. We hope that policymakers will respond accordingly.”

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