Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: During the Indian Prime Minister’s visits overseas, a large number of Indian migrants line up to greet them. The trend multiplied during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign tours since 2014 and his mega shows have become very popular among Indian immigrants across the world.
But when undemocratic leaders from China visit other countries, few Chinese turn up to greet them.
Now a Pew Research report has revealed that most Asian Americans view their ancestral homelands favorably, except Chinese Americans.
In its latest report underscoring negative sentiment in the United States toward China, Pew Research found that less than half—or 41 percent—Chinese Americans hold a favorable opinion of China.
By contrast, about 90 percent of Taiwanese and Japanese Americans say their opinion of their own ancestral homeland is very or somewhat favorable, as do large majorities of Korean, Indian, and Filipino adults.
A smaller majority of Vietnamese Americans say they have a favorable view of Vietnam, the media, citing Pew Research, reported.
The findings are based on an analysis of a nationally representative survey of Asian American adults conducted from July 5, 2022, to January 27, 2023. This period was covered by heightened military exercises around Taiwan by China’s People’s Liberation Army following a visit by then-U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August 2022.
Nearly 24 million Americans were at least partly of Asian descent as of 2021, according to Commerce Department figures.
The image of the US itself fared much better in the report. Around three-quarters of Asian Americans (78 percent) have a favorable view of the US. A majority also say they have positive views of Japan (68 percent), South Korea (62 percent), and Taiwan (56 percent).
Overall opinion among Asian Americans of Vietnam, the Philippines, and India was more mixed. For Vietnam and the Philippines, 37 percent of Asian adults have positive views, while around half say they have neither favorable nor unfavorable views. Meanwhile, 33 percent of Asian Americans have favorable views of India, 41 percent report a neutral view and 23 percent view it unfavorably, Pew said.
Prominent Asian American immigrants in business include chipmaker Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang, who hails from Taiwan, software firm Zscaler’s India-born CEO Jay Chaudhry, and Pakistan-born Flex-N-Gate CEO Shahid Kahn.