Americans have turned some of their bipartisan ire amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic toward Beijing, a new Harris Poll survey released Wednesday shows.
Per the poll, nearly 90 percent of Republicans believe China, where the coronavirus originated, is responsible for the spread while two-thirds of Democrats surveyed said the same. There's a little more discrepancy across party lines when it comes to how Chinese President Xi Jinping and his government should reckon with their role in exacerbating crisis, but more than half of Americans believe Beijing should pay some form of reparations to other countries.
NEW:
-77% blame China for coronavirus including more than two-thirds (67%) of Democrats
-71% say American companies should pull back manufacturing in China
-69% support Trump’s tougher trade policies with China
-54% say China should pay reparationshttps://t.co/ExK5hf0Lrd
— Alberto E. Martinez (@albertemartinez) April 8, 2020
Among GOP voters, 71 percent think China has a responsibility to compensate other countries for the damage the pandemic has caused. Fewer than half of Democrats agree with that sentiment, but the 41 percent who do is not an insignificant amount.
The Harris Poll was conducted online between between April 3-April 5. A nationally representative sample of 1,993 U.S. adults was surveyed. No margin of error was reported. Read more at The Washington Post and take a look at the full poll results here.
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