Finding trustworthy common ground: analysis of Chinese trust in Americans (2012–2018)

Using four waves of CFPS data from 2012 to 2018, we focused on the degree of Chinese individuals’ trust in Americans, and found that the Chinese interviewees were ‘very distrustful’ Americans. We employed the random-effects ordered probit method to estimate the model, and made the following key conclusions: in terms of individual characteristics, (1) gender factors affect Chinese trust in Americans, the degree of trust among males is higher than that among females; (2) the Chinese individuals’ trust in Americans gradually decreases with the advance of age; (3) the level of education has a positive correlation with international trust. Meanwhile, socioeconomic factors play an important role in explaining the degree of Chinese individuals’ trust in Americans. Chinese individuals with higher social status and relative income are more likely to trust Americans. Moreover, the attitude and evaluation of individuals towards the government are also worthy of attention. Importantly, in contrast to earlier published findings, we found that Chinese Communist Party members were more likely to trust Americans, while military veterans, however, have a low degree of trust in American people, which might be highly correlated with the China–US political relations.