More Germans view China as a better partner with their country than the United States, according to a recently released poll showing souring relations since Donald Trump took office two years ago.
Germans hold an increasingly negative view of the relationship between the US and their country, with just 23.1 per cent saying they think the US is a better partner than China. Meanwhile, 42 per cent of Germans surveyed said that China is a more reliable partner than America.
The survey was conducted by Atlantik-Brücke, or Atlantic Bridge, a pro-Nato non-profit group that promotes US-Europe relations.
“Given the huge loss of confidence in the US, we need to engage more than ever in our talks with and about America,” Burkhard Schwenker, deputy chairman of the Atlantik-Brücke, said of the results.
Beyond the international partner results, a significant number of Germans indicated that they believe the US and Germany have poor relations. All told, 85 per cent of respondents said that the US and Germany have a negative or very negative relationship. Only 10 per cent said that the two countries have a very positive or rather positive relationship.
Michael Werz, a senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress think tank and a member of the board of directors for Atlantik-Brücke, urged Germans in the survey’s summary to “not let anti-American sentiment sentiment blind them to the dangers emanating from the authoritarian systems of Russia and China.”
Since taking office, Mr Trump has taken a starkly different approach to US-Europe relations than his predecessors before him.
Mr Trump has repeatedly signalled a dissatisfaction with the funding scheme for Nato, and has demanded that US allies in Europe contribute more to the mutual defence pact.
The US president has also taken a combative tone and approach to some European allies, and has threatened or imposed tariffs on allies in the continent
The Atlantic Bridge survey was conducted in November and December, and contacted 5,000 respondents.
