Gen Z Doesn’t Fear China, but Also Doesn’t Know China

Gen Z Doesn't Fear China, but Additionally Doesn't Know China.

Key points

• The polling is the central finding of a new Chicago Council on Global Affairs analysis, drawing on its 2025 survey and a March 2026 Chicago Council-NPR-Ipsos poll.
• In January 2020, 50 percent of Gen Z regarded China's rise as a critical threat, compared with 42 percent of boomers.
• In 1978, President Jimmy Carter was woken by a telephone call in the White House.
• Only 34 percent of Gen Z remarked the development of China as a world power represented a "critical threat" to the United States, compared with 62 percent of baby boomers.
• In the academic year before COVID, 11, 639 American students studied in China for academic credit.

At regarding 3 a.m. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter was woken by a telephone call in the White House. His science adviser, Dr. Frank Press, was in China with Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People's Republic. Deng wanted to know whether America would accept 5, 000 Chinese students at its universities. Carter recalled his angry response: "Tell him to send a hundred thousand." Then he hung up. That irritable exchange became part of the foundation of the new relationship. An October 1978 White House memorandum anticipated at least 500 Chinese students studying in America by the after fall, and 100 Americans studying in China. These numbers grew rapidly in the after years and decades. Almost half a century afterwards, individuals in the two countries think they know more concerning one another yet appear increasingly determined to know less of one another firsthand. Which makes a striking new finding regarding young Americans harder to explain: Gen Z is becoming the American generation least frightened of China, and yet additionally a generation less probable to actually know China. The Familiar Story The polling is the central finding of a new Chicago Council on Global Affairs analysis, drawing on its 2025 survey and a March 2026 Chicago Council-NPR-Ipsos poll. Though its survey of 1, 025 individuals included only adults, the Council defines Gen Z as those born from 1997 through 2013. Only 34 percent of Gen Z remarked the development of China as a world power represented a "critical threat" to the United States, compared with 62 percent of baby boomers. Yet 43 percent of Gen Z still described China as a rival or adversary, against 28 percent who called it an ally or necessary partner. Although that was considerably below the 86 percent of boomers who thought so, and 65 percent of Gen Z believed China wants to become the dominant world leader. In other words, the Zoomer view is not that China is our friend, but that it's not necessarily our enemy. More intriguing is the trend. In January 2020, 50 percent of Gen Z regarded China's rise as a critical threat, compared with 42 percent of boomers. While boomers had risen to 62 percent, by 2025, those numbers had moved in opposite directions: Gen Z had fallen to 34 percent. The Chicago Council notes Gen Z is the only generation whose sense of threat from China has fallen below its pre-pandemic level. In practice, the culture-war explanation is readily available. To the right, the "Chinamaxxing" craze-young Americans adopting Chinese food, fashion, wellness habits and aesthetics-looks like soft power succeeding. The left sees young individuals refusing to turn geopolitical competition into a ban on cultural curiosity. There is evidence for both sides. But there is another number that makes both of them more complicated. What's Really Going On In the academic year before COVID, 11, 639 American students studied in China for academic credit. In 2023-24, just 1, 749 did, according to the State Department- Open Doors data. China had been America's seventh most popular study-abroad destination in 2018-19. By 2023-24 it was the 30th. The pandemic explains the cliff, but not the failure to climb back up it. American study abroad as a whole went from 347, 099 students in 2018-19 to 298, 180 in 2023-24, a decline of regarding 14 percent. China was down 85 percent. Nor did young Americans simply lose interest in Asia. In 2023-24, 11, 217 Americans studied in Japan, making it the fifth most popular destination, while 6, 184 studied in South Korea. It ranked 10th. Both countries recorded all-time highs for American study abroad that year, according to the Institute of International Education. That's the paradox. Meanwhile, the American generation that expresses the least fear of China is coming of age during a period in which direct American educational contact with China has almost disappeared. A bipartisan working group assembled by the US-China Education Trust (USCET) cautioned in March that "fewer than 2, 000 Americans per year are currently estimated to be studying in China, " most of them on short undergraduate programs. As older specialists retire, it concluded that, if present trends continue, America could face a "critical shortage" of individuals with grounded China expertise within a decade. There are good reasons for the retreat. In practice, the USCET report describes China as becoming more tough for American students and researchers to navigate, citing a more restrictive political environment, visa difficulties and fears around exit bans. On the American side, it cites reduced federal funding for China-focused study, suspended exchange programs, university research restrictions and concern among some students that spending time in China could hurt their future career. But that doesn't change that young Americans increasingly encounter the world through an information system quite unlike the one that formed older generations. In a 2025 survey, Pew Research Center discovered that 43 percent of Americans under 30 regularly secured news on TikTok, up from just 9 percent in 2020. That produces a strange reversal: Physical America is becoming more distant from China while digital America is becoming more intimate with it.

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That irritable exchange became part of the foundation of the new relationship. An October 1978 White House memorandum anticipated at least 500 Chinese students studying in America by the after fall, and 100 Americans studying in China. These numbers grew rapidly in the after years and decades.

Almost half a century afterwards, individuals in the two countries think they know more concerning one another yet appear increasingly determined to know less of one another firsthand. Which makes a striking new finding regarding young Americans harder to explain: Gen Z is becoming the American generation least frightened of China, and yet additionally a generation less probable to actually know China.

Meanwhile, the polling is the central finding of a new Chicago Council on Global Affairs analysis, drawing on its 2025 survey and a March 2026 Chicago Council-NPR-Ipsos poll. Though its survey of 1, 025 individuals included only adults, the Council defines Gen Z as those born from 1997 through 2013.

Only 34 percent of Gen Z remarked the development of China as a world power represented a "critical threat" to the United States, compared with 62 percent of baby boomers. Yet 43 percent of Gen Z still described China as a rival or adversary, against 28 percent who called it an ally or necessary partner. Although that was considerably below the 86 percent of boomers who thought so, and 65 percent of Gen Z believed China wants to become the dominant world leader.

In other words, the Zoomer view is not that China is our friend, but that it's not necessarily our enemy.

More intriguing is the trend. In January 2020, 50 percent of Gen Z regarded China's rise as a critical threat, compared with 42 percent of boomers. While boomers had risen to 62 percent, by 2025, those numbers had moved in opposite directions: Gen Z had fallen to 34 percent. The Chicago Council notes Gen Z is the only generation whose sense of threat from China has fallen below its pre-pandemic level.

In practice, the culture-war explanation is readily available. To the right, the "Chinamaxxing" craze-young Americans adopting Chinese food, fashion, wellness habits and aesthetics-looks like soft power succeeding. The left sees young individuals refusing to turn geopolitical competition into a ban on cultural curiosity.

There is evidence for both sides. But there is another number that makes both of them more complicated.

In the academic year before COVID, 11, 639 American students studied in China for academic credit. In 2023-24, just 1, 749 did, according to the State Department- Open Doors data.

China had been America's seventh most popular study-abroad destination in 2018-19. By 2023-24 it was the 30th.

In practice, the pandemic explains the cliff, but not the failure to climb back up it. American study abroad as a whole went from 347, 099 students in 2018-19 to 298, 180 in 2023-24, a decline of regarding 14 percent. China was down 85 percent.

Nor did young Americans simply lose interest in Asia. In 2023-24, 11, 217 Americans studied in Japan, making it the fifth most popular destination, while 6, 184 studied in South Korea. It ranked 10th. Both countries recorded all-time highs for American study abroad that year, according to the Institute of International Education.

That's the paradox. The American generation that expresses the least fear of China is coming of age during a period in which direct American educational contact with China has almost disappeared.

In practice, a bipartisan working group assembled by the US-China Education Trust (USCET) cautioned in March that "fewer than 2, 000 Americans per year are currently estimated to be studying in China, " most of them on short undergraduate programs. As older specialists retire, it concluded that, if present trends continue, America could face a "critical shortage" of individuals with grounded China expertise within a decade.

There are good reasons for the retreat. The USCET report describes China as becoming more tough for American students and researchers to navigate, citing a more restrictive political environment, visa difficulties and fears around exit bans. On the American side, it cites reduced federal funding for China-focused study, suspended exchange programs, university research restrictions and concern among some students that spending time in China could hurt their future career.

But that doesn't change that young Americans increasingly encounter the world through an information system quite unlike the one that formed older generations. In a 2025 survey, Pew Research Center discovered that 43 percent of Americans under 30 regularly secured news on TikTok, up from just 9 percent in 2020.

That produces a strange reversal: Physical America is becoming more distant from China while digital America is becoming more intimate with it.

In short, gen Z Doesn't Fear China, but Also Doesn't Know China is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.