December 5, 2023

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Most Asian Americans View Origin Country Favorably but China Is Exception

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A majority view the U.S. positively and see it as the world’s leading economic power of the next decade

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand Asian Americans’ views of their ancestral homelands and the U.S. It highlights the attitudes and opinions on global affairs of all U.S. Asian adults as well as the specific views of Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and Vietnamese adults in the U.S. This report is the latest in the Center’s in-depth analyses of public opinion among Asian Americans. 

The data in this report comes from a nationally representative survey of 7,006 Asian adults that explores the experiences, attitudes and views of Asians living in the U.S. on several topics, including identity, affirmative action and global affairs. The survey sampled U.S. adults who self-identify as Asian, either alone or in combination with other races or Hispanic ethnicity. It was offered in six languages: Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), English, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Responses were collected from July 5, 2022, to Jan. 27, 2023, by Westat on behalf of Pew Research Center.

The Center recruited a large sample to examine the diversity of the U.S. Asian population, with oversamples of Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean and Vietnamese populations. These are the five largest origin groups among Asian Americans. The survey also includes a large enough sample of self-identified Japanese adults to make findings about them reportable. Findings for Taiwanese adults are likewise reportable and accompanied with margins of sampling error in charts. In this report, the seven Asian origin groups highlighted include those who identify with one Asian origin only, either alone or in combination with a non-Asian race or ethnicity. Together, these seven groups constitute 81% of all U.S. Asian adults, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey (ACS). For more information on how we defined our sample of Taiwanese adults – and the other Asian origin groups – refer to the appendix.

Survey respondents were drawn from a national sample of residential mailing addresses, which included addresses from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Specialized surnames list frames maintained by the Marketing Systems Group were used to supplement the sample. Those eligible to complete the survey were offered the opportunity to do so online or by mail with a paper questionnaire. For details, refer to the methodology. For questions used in this analysis, refer to the topline questionnaire.

Survey results were complemented by 66 pre-survey focus groups of Asian adults, conducted from Aug. 4 to Oct. 14, 2021, with 264 recruited participants from 18 Asian origin groups. Focus group discussions were conducted in 18 different languages and moderated by members of their origin groups. In the focus groups, participants were asked about their opinions of the places they trace their heritage to, and some quotations are used in this report. Quotations are not necessarily representative of the majority opinion in any particular group or in the United States. Quotations may have been edited for grammar, spelling and clarity.

Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. The Center’s Asian American portfolio was funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from The Asian American Foundation; Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Henry Luce Foundation; the Doris Duke Foundation; The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation; The Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation; The Long Family Foundation; Lu-Hebert Fund; Gee Family Foundation; Joseph Cotchett; the Julian Abdey and Sabrina Moyle Charitable Fund; and Nanci Nishimura.

We would also like to thank the Leaders Forum for its thought leadership and valuable assistance in helping make this survey possible.

The strategic communications campaign used to promote the research was made possible with generous support from the Doris Duke Foundation.

The terms Asians, U.S. Asian adults and Asian Americans are used interchangeably throughout this report to refer to U.S. adults who self-identify as Asian, either alone or in combination with other races or Hispanic identity.

Asian origins and origin group labels, such as Chinese and Chinese origin, are used interchangeably in this report for findings for Asian origin groups, such as Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese or Vietnamese. Origin groups in this report include those who report being one Asian origin only, either alone or in combination with a non-Asian race or ethnicity. For this report, Chinese adults do not include those who self-identify as Taiwanese. For more information on how we defined the Taiwanese sample, refer to the appendix.

Ancestral homeland is used in this report to refer to the place in Asia that people trace their ancestry or heritage to, including the place they are from or the place their family or ancestors are from. It is used interchangeably with homeland, homeland of their ancestors, homeland of their heritage, place of origin and place they trace their heritage to throughout this report.

To make comparisons between a specific Asian origin group and the rest of the U.S. Asian population, other Asian adults is used in this report to refer to Asian adults who report being some other Asian origin than the one highlighted. This includes those who report being another Asian origin, either alone or in combination with a non-Asian race or ethnicity, or two or more Asian origins.

Immigrants in this report are people who were not U.S. citizens at birth – in other words, those born outside the U.S., Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories to parents who are not U.S. citizens. Immigrant, foreign born and born abroad are used interchangeably to refer to this group.  

Naturalized citizens are immigrants who are lawful permanent residents who have fulfilled the length of stay and other requirements to become U.S. citizens and who have taken the oath of citizenship.

U.S. born refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories.

Primary language is a composite measure based on self-described assessments of speaking and reading abilities. People who are origin language dominant are more proficient in the Asian origin language of their family or ancestors than in English (i.e., they speak and read their Asian origin language “very well” or “pretty well” but rate their ability to speak and read English lower). Bilingual refers to those who are proficient in both English and their Asian origin language. People who are English dominant are more proficient in English than in their Asian origin language.

Throughout this report, the phrases Democrats and Democratic leaners and Democrats refer to respondents who identify politically with the Democratic Party or who are independent or identify with some other party but lean toward the Democratic Party. Similarly, the phrases Republicans and Republican leaners and Republicans both refer to respondents who identify politically with the Republican Party or are independent or identify with some other party but lean toward the Republican Party.

The terms Republican Party and GOP are used interchangeably in this report.

Comparing Asian Americans’ views with those of the American public