American Elites’ Stirring-Up China Topic After The Global Financial Crisis And Its Impact On American Public

American political elites and opinion leaders are now stirring up China topic more and more frequently because of China’s ever growing economic strength and global status and America’s relative decline after the global financial crisis, which affect American publics’ perceptions on China. The main reasons for American elites’ stirring up China topic are as follows:the strong awareness of crisis and unexpectedness in American strategic culture, executive-legislative game playing, domestic psephocracy and realistic reasons such as diverting public’s attention away from the poor economic situation. After comparing the frequency, content and intention of American elites’ numerous remarks and speeches that involve China before and after the global financial crisis, we argue that American elites are now stirring up China topic more frequently than before, while topics and contents become more diversified and intentions more complex, which has an impact on American publics’ perceptions on China. Taking clean energy and Sino-U.S.trade dispute as two examples, we find that American public’s new China perceptions in these two specific areas affect U.S. clean energy and economic policy towards China and also, Sino-U.S. relations. Finally, we can draw a conclusion that China should improve its communication with America in order to send clear signals, take advantage of mainstream American media and new media to shape a positive image of China and at the same time, carry out public diplomacy that easily accepted by American public so as to lead them to hold a positive attitude on China, thus creating a friendly atmosphere in which to develop a sound and robust Sino-U.S. relations.