Poll: “70% Believe IOC Was Wrong to Award Olympic Games to China”
Apr 14th, 2008 • Posted in: Research ReportSurvey finds mixed support for boycott of Olympics; majority doubts Olympics broadcaster NBC will be aggressive in reporting negative news on China
From Zogby Interactive:
“As thousands of pro-Tibet protesters cut short the Olympic torch relay Monday in Paris, a new Zogby Interactive poll finds 70% of likely voters believe the International Olympic Committee was wrong to award this year’s summer Olympic Games to China because of its poor record on human rights. Dissatisfaction with the IOC’s choice is strong across the political spectrum, with 70% of Democrats and Republicans, and 68% of political independents who said they disagree with the decision to have China host the summer games….
“…The online survey finds nearly half — 48% — think U.S. political officials should not attend the opening ceremony of the games because of China’s poor human rights record, while 33% believe U.S. officials should attend and 19% are unsure. Most Democrats (52%) and independents (51%) would support U.S. political officials boycotting the opening ceremony, while Republicans are more divided — 42% believe U.S. officials should not attend, while 41% believe they should be present at the opening ceremony….
“Support for an outright boycott of the games is less strong, although nearly a third (31%) believe the United States Olympic Committee should boycott the Olympic Games and 23% believe President Bush should order a U.S. boycott of the games to protest China’s human rights record….
“While 46% agree a political boycott by world leaders of the Olympics would be an effective way for them to express their unhappiness with China’s human rights record, nearly as many (40%) disagree. Regardless of their support for a boycott, most question how likely it would be to bring about change — 70% believe a boycott of the Olympic Games in China would amount to grandstanding by world leaders that might help them politically in their own countries, but will have no effect on how China’s leaders treat their own citizens. Just 13% believe a boycott would embarrass the Chinese leadership so much they would change how they treat Chinese citizens.
“Regardless of how they view the effectiveness of a boycott to change how Chinese leaders treat their citizens, 71% believe any boycott of the Olympic Games in China by the U.S. would be hypocritical because the U.S. imports so many products from China and retains relatively close diplomatic ties with China that the U.S. has essentially endorsed China’s human rights record. Sixty-one percent also believe that U.S. political leaders may oppose a boycott against the China Olympics out of fear of a financial backlash from China….
“Despite recent media coverage of China’s human rights issues, nearly half of Americans (48%) believe the U.S. and international media will ignore negative stories about China before and during the Olympic Games out of fear of retribution from the Chinese government. The vast majority (94%) believes the Chinese government will try to prevent international news media from covering stories about China that put the government or country in a bad light….
“When asked about their expectations of coverage from NBC — the network contracted to televise the Olympic Games in China this summer — most (54%) don’t believe the network will be as aggressive about covering any possible negative stories about China leading up to and during the Olympics as it would be if not contracted to broadcast the games….”
For more information, see: Full press release from Zogby, Apr. 7 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 7.
Print This Story
Email This Story
[...] more information, see this week’s Research Report. Print This Story Email This [...]
[...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, Apr. 14 – Related Newsline story, Apr. 14 – Related [...]
[...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, Apr. 14 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 5 — Related Newsline story, Dec. 31, 2007 [...]
[...] policy.” For more information, see: Full press release from Harris, May 21 — Related Newsline Research Report, Apr. 14 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 7. Print This Story Email [...]