That finding was something of a surprise as the United States and China have avoided any outright crisis or conflict over the past five years since an American Orion electronic surveillance aircraft made a forced landing on the Chinese island of Hainan after it collided with a Chinese fighter plane that was buzzing it. The pilot of the Chinese plane was killed.

In the UPI-Zogby poll, 44 percent said they believed U.S. relations with China had remained much the same since President Bush entered office nearly six and a half years ago. However, 64 percent rated Bush poorly for the way he had dealt with China.

Just over a quarter of those polled -- 28 percent -- said they believed relations with China had deteriorated since Bush took office and less than one in five -- 19 percent -- said they thought relations had improved during that time.

Some 63 percent expressed concern over the erosion of U.S. strength and interests compared to China on one of three major issues. When asked what they thought was the most important outstanding issue between the United States and China, 29 percent said it was the huge annual trade deficit, currently running at more than $200 billion, between the two countries.

Another 21 percent said they were most concerned about China's growing global presence and economic clout while 13 percent said they were most worried by the continued loss of U.S. industrial and manufacturing jobs to China, and related Chinese competition against U.S. companies.

Americans drew a striking distinction between the government of China and Beijing's national interests, which they tended to view either unfavorably, or were divided over, and the Chinese people, who continued to be viewed favorably.

The Chinese government was viewed unfavorably by a whopping 87 percent, or more than five-sixths, of Americans while the Chinese people were viewed favorably by 79 percent, or almost four out of five, of those polled.

China was overwhelmingly seen as much more of an economic threat than a military threat to the United States. Some 24.3 percent said it was a threat to U.S. national security but more than twice that number -- 59.9 percent -- said it was already an economic threat to the United States. By contrast, only 5.7 percent of those polled viewed China as an economic partner and an ally.

Americans tended to regard the Chinese space program with concern and possibly fear rather than with admiration. Some 63.8 percent, or almost two-thirds, said they believed the Chinese space program, which has so far produced two successful manned orbital flights, was a threat to U.S. national security. Less than half that number, only 28.9 percent, did not believe it was a threat to U.S. national security.

The pattern of the polling made clear that Americans were most concerned about the impact on their own lives, nation and economic prospects of the growing competition with China and that military concerns did not rate anywhere nearly as high for them.

The poll also included the striking figure that 83.7 percent believed China was a greater economic threat to the United States than India. Only 6.3 percent thought India was a greater threat.

The poll was conducted with 5,141 adult online respondents across the United States and its margin of error was plus/minus 1.4 percentage points.

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