As U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet Thursday and Friday at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, it will be against a backdrop of softening American views toward China — despite a series of thorny issues the two powers face.
According to a major Pew Research Center poll published Tuesday, 44 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of China, up from just 37 percent a year ago.
The rising positive ratings for China may be due in part to declining concerns about economic threats from China, the survey showed. It found that the share of the public that sees the amount of U.S. debt held by Beijing, the loss of jobs to China and the trade deficit with China as very serious problems has fallen significantly in recent years.