Survey shows America's friends, enemies in eyes of US residents

 A recent survey released by London-based Internet market research firm YouGov shows that Canada and the United Kingdom are America's closest allies in the eyes of people living in the United States, while the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is considered the top enemy.

The survey, conducted from Jan. 28 to Feb. 1 under the title of "America's Friends and Enemies," involved 7,150 adults living in the United States.

Each respondent was asked his or her opinion about a random selection of 15 countries from a total of 144 countries.

The respondents were asked the question: "Do you consider the countries listed below to be a friend or an enemy of the United States?" The response options were "ally," "friendly," "unfriendly," "enemy" or "not sure" for each of the 15 countries listed. Among the 15 countries, nine are from the most well known group, four from the middle group and two from the least well known group.

The results showed that among 1,213 people who had Canada as one of the listed countries, 55 percent said they view it as an "ally" of the United States, while 32 percent claimed the country as friendly to the United States. Only 3 percent regarded the country as "unfriendly" and 1 percent say it is an "enemy."

In addition, the United Kingdom enjoyed the same popularity as Canada, with 55 percent of 1,294 respondents see it as an "ally" of the United States and 25 percent believe it is a "friendly" country.

According to the survey, Australia ranked the third on the list of U.S. allies, although the White House said last week that U.S. President Donald Trump is "unbelievably disappointed" at the refugee deal that the Obama administration signed with Australia.

The DPRK topped the list of countries seen as the U.S. "enemies," followed by Iran and Syria, the survey showed.

In addition, despite Trump's lavish praise for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and speculations about the two former Cold War foes mending ties under the Trump administration, U.S. residents' impression on Russia does not seem to have any fundamental changes.

Among 1,313 people who had Russia as one of the listed countries, 22 percent said they view it as an enemy while 33 percent claimed they regarded the country as unfriendly. Only 16 percent of the respondents see Russia as a friend and a mere 3 percent regarded it as an ally.

source: Xinhua