Why are people afraid of a powerful China but not a powerful US?

为什么人们害怕强大的中国，却不怕强大的美国？

以下是Quora网友的评价：

Reginald Arnold

The US has a network of friends and while highly imperfect, it accepts input and direction from those friends. It reciprocates by defending those friends. China has no such network or history of listening to friends.

美国有她的社交圈，虽然非常不完美，但它接受这些朋友的意见和指导。而作为回报，美国会保护那些朋友。中国就没有这样的社交圈，也没有听取朋友意见的历史。

The US is a known commodity and one around which American allies can (and do) build their foreign policies. Despite all the recent mistakes (Iraq being a damned big one), the US's behavior is fairly predictable especially if you're in the circle of friends. If you are in that circle, you get to skimp on defense and safely bet that the US will have your back and all you have to do is pay lip service to the US and its policies. It's a sweet gig. China totally threatens that gig and even to the point where those nations that skimp on defense will have to cut domestic spending or raise taxes (both?) to stay secure.

美国是一个知名度极高的商品，美国的盟友可以(也确实)围绕它制定外交政策。尽管最近犯了很多错误(伊拉克就是一个大错误)，美国的行为还是可以预测的。

如果你在美国的圈子里，就可以在国防上节省开支，也可以安心笃定美国会帮助你，你所要做的就是对美国及其政策说点好话。这是一份轻松甜蜜的工作。

他们威胁到了这些国家的美差，甚至让那些在国防上一毛不拔的国家也不得不削减国内支出或提高税收(或者两者兼而有之)来保障国家安全。

Jayden Rivera

Because people are easily manipulated.

The US has Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the Kardashians and the ubiquity of the English language to help spread its soft power around the world. China has nothing but bad press from CNN, BBC and every other Western news network.

But despite all that, there are still plenty of non-Chinese who would prefer a less US dominated world order. In those countries in South America, Africa, and SEA where China has a strong presence, the native reaction is generally quite positive. People generally prefer foreign men with money (the Chinese) over foreign men with guns (the Americans).

因为人很容易被操纵。

好莱坞、硅谷、卡戴珊家族和无处不在的英语帮美国在世界各地传播其软实力。而中国只有CNN、BBC和其他西方新闻网络的负面报道。

尽管如此，仍有很多非华裔人士希望看到一个不只由美国主导的世界秩序。在南美、非洲和东南亚这些中国势力较为强大的国家中，当地人的反应普遍都很积极。人们通常更喜欢有钱的外国人(中国人)，而不是有枪的外国人(美国人)。

Göktürk Teams

People are afraid of a powerful China because of its increasing influence in the world,. By contrast, the United States is a de ocracy, and its power and influence is seen as a stabilizing force in the world.

人们害怕强大的中国，因为中国在世界上的影响力越来越大。相比之下，美国是一个皿煮国家，她的控制力和影响被视为世界的稳定力量。

Brent Harrelson

1.Simplest answer, people dislike change. The U.S. has been a world power for a century so even people that dislike the U.S. are at least familiar with it. China is an unknown quantity, thus a source of change, uncertainty, and confusion.

2.The U.S. was a relatively benign world power. America tried her hand at colonialism in the 1800s but got over it relatively quickly. Many people accuse the U.S. of imperialism but that’s nonsense. If the U.S. were imperialist then Germany, Japan, France, the Philippines, South Korea, and other parts of the world would be U.S. states or territories. Few countries are seriously worried about the U.S. conquering and annexng them.

1.最简单的答案是，人们都不喜欢改变。美国作为世界强国的地位，已经保持了一个世纪了，所以就算不喜欢美国的人也很熟悉她。而中国则是一个未知数，是变化、不确定性和混乱的来源。

2. 美国是一个相对温和的世界强国。美国在19世纪也曾尝试推行殖民 主义，但很快就放弃了。很多人指责美国是帝国主义，那只是无稽之谈。如果美国真的是帝国主义国家，那么德国、日本、法国、菲律宾、韩国和世界其他地区都会沦为美国的州或领土。真正会担心美国征服和吞并自己的国家少之又少。

Plus, the U.S. was founded and developed on ideals like freedom, liberty, free trade, de ocracy, etc. Granted, we haven’t always lived up to our lofty ideas, but people are willing to cut you some slack if they generally agree with what you’re saying. China has an government and hasn’t been able to inspire others like the U.S. used to.

此外，美国是在自由、自主、贸易、皿煮等理想的基础上建立和发展起来的。当然，我们也不是总能实现我们的崇高理念，但如果人们大体上同意你所说的，大家都愿意理解配合。而中国不可能像美国那样激励其他国家。

It’s also important to remember that, no so long ago, America had a MUCH better reputation. We were the world’s policeman, the world’s banker, the world’s breadbasket, etc. We created the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. We inspired the world by landing a man on the moon. Lots of things. The U.S. is less feared because we still have a lot of residual goodwill from back when we earned it. China may one day develop that kind of goodwill, but they haven’t yet.

同样重要的是要记住，美国之前的名声比现在好多了。我们是世界警察，世界银行家，世界粮仓，等等。我们创立了重建欧洲的马歇尔计划。我们让人类登上了月球，启发了世界。美国做了很多很多事情。美国没那么可怕，因为我们当年赢得的商誉还有不少盈余。中国以后可能也会释放出这种善意，但起码现在还没有。

3. The U.S. still controls the message (mostly). China WANTS to be the big boy on the block, but the U.S. IS the big boy. This means that we still have a greater say in the global narrative. All established world powers (like the U.S.) fear rising powers (like China) so they act against them to protect their power. (China will eventually do the same to protect their power.) China’s MASSIVE population makes it obvious that other countries will HAVE to unite to contain China. The Chinese see this as an effort to harm China, but it’s actually an effort for other countries to maintain a balance of power and not be overwhelmed. This automatically leads to an us vs. them metality and China is “them” - thus they are feared. The U.S. is on the “us” side so we are less feared.

3.美国仍然控制着话语权。中国想当大哥大，但美国才是真正的老大，这意味着我们在世界上仍拥有更大的话语权。

目前所有的世界大国(如美国)都害怕崛起的大国(如中国)，所以他们采取行动来保护自己的力量。(为了保护自己的实力，中国最终也会这么做。)

中国庞大的人口显然会让其他国家不得不联合起来遏制中国。中国人认为这是一种伤害中国的做法，但实际上这只是其他国家保持国力平衡、不愿落至下风的努力。

这自动导致了我们对他们的对立，中国就是“他们”—因此他们令人恐惧。美国和“我们”在一起，所以我们不那么可怕。

Cheryl REN

Here the word people does not mean all people but the people in the upper class.

I guess they are worried that their properties and powers would get lost. If China is not , they will show friendliness. Globalization has resulted in their assets not being confined to their country. They tried to infiltrate the center of power in China but failed. Therefore, the Chinese threat is created.

这里的“人”一词并不是指所有人，而是特指上流社会那些人。

我猜他们是担心自己的财产和权力会成空。全球化导致他们的资产不再局限于自己的国家。他们试图打入中国的中心，可惜失败了。因此，中国威胁论就这样产生了。

Khawar Saeed

Who says people are not afraid of a powerful US. China is yet to become a super power , whereas the US has been a sole super power for decades now. Its unending wars and the use of realism in the garb of liberalism has brought about huge destruction around the globe. The myth of a liberal world order has exploded. It is just the control of the US and the West on media platforms that makes people believe that China is a threat to the world.

谁说人们不怕强大的美国呢。中国还没有成为超级大国，而美国几十年来一直是唯一的超级大国。美国挑起无休止的战争，用披着自由主义外衣的现实主义给全球带来了巨大的破坏。自由世界秩序的神话已经破灭。正是美国和西方对媒体平台的把控，让人们认为中国是全世界的威胁。

Amir Abella

Because most people are used to it.

Except the very old. Most of us saw the US as the most powerful country in the world. We see and hear it so commonly that we don't care about it anymore.

因为大多数人都习惯了。

除了老一辈人，大多数人都认为美国是世界上最强大的国家。我们经常看到和听到美国的事，我们早就见怪不怪了。

Minh

The United States wars for political purposes, they change their goals according to the situation.

And China is the war of assimilation. Forced assimilation of culture, the whole history of China's expansion.

The whole of China has 250 language groups, which, due to forced assimilation, makes it impossible to create a national identity. Today, China only exports culture with ancient content such as Journey to the West.

美国为了政治目的挑起战争，根据形势改变自己的目标。

而中国是为同化而战。强行同化文化，贯穿了中国的整个扩张史。

中国有250种方言，由于被迫同化，所以无法形成民族认同感。今天，中国只能输出古代文化，比如《西游记》。

Rini Basudara

I think the US should be frightened more by human on Earth. Besides, we have a large, powerful neighborhood with a history of intervening in South American affairs to secure its own interests with little to no care about South Nations well-being, aka the USA. Now, people are not nearly as vocal about the USA than they're about China. Why is that? Because the power of hegemonic powers, the longer they last, is eventually internalised by the powers inside their sphere of influence.

我认为地球上的人类应该更害怕美国。此外，我们有一个庞大而强大的邻居，有插手南美事务、确保自己的利益的历史，几乎不关心南方国家的福祉，也就是美国。现在，人们对美国的意见远不如对中国的意见大。为什么呢？因为霸权国家的势力持续的时间越长，最终就会被其势力范围内的势力所内化。

There was a time when the US had a lot of corruption, pollution, depredations by robber barons, aggressive foreign policy (e.g. Hawaii's conquest). There was even a time when a portion of US residents enslaved another portion based on the colour of their skin. I'll warrant that during those times, the dominant European nations looked down their collective noses at the barbaric West, and would shudder at the thought of a world led by the USA.

曾经有一段时间，美国也有严重的腐败、污染、强盗大亨四处掠夺、充满侵略性的外交政策(例如征服夏威夷)。甚至还有一段时间，有些美国人根据人种肤色奴役另一部分美国人。我敢保证，在那段时间里，欧洲的统治国家集体鄙视野蛮的西方国家，一想到美国领导的世界就不寒而栗。

Mark Louie Castor

If you knew what happened to the nations taken by the Soviet Union after the Second World War especially half of Germany and many European States taken by the Soviet Union, then that will happen if China will invade many countries.

如果你知道二战后被苏联占领的国家发生过什么，尤其是德国的一半领土和许多欧洲国家都被苏联占领，那么你就会知道如果他们入侵其他国家，这种情况就会再次上演。

Camila Baena Garcia

Obviously china, cause if china becomes a economical superpower and a military superpower, if it conquer, invade or economic sanction a country, no other country can stop it. Not even the UN. Or USA and Russia. For now it is peaceful. But wait till 5 or 10 years, it will have a geopolitical ambition and will will conquer its neighbouring country and destroy its ompetitor such as south korea and japan. Just see late in the future. If China stop conquer, it is stupid. He will stagnant. So stupid. What kind of people want to refuse power and wealth.

显然是中国，因为如果中国成为一个经济超级大国和军事超级大国，如果它征服、入侵或经济制裁一个国家，没有其他国家可以阻止中国，甚至联合国、美国和俄罗斯也都无能为力。目前中国是和平国家，但再过5年或10年，它也会生出地缘政治野心，可能会征服邻国，摧毁韩国和日本等竞争对手。如果停止征服，中国就是愚蠢的。中国会停滞不前，愚蠢至极。什么样的人会愿意拒绝权力和财富呢？