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Should World Leaders Skip the Olympics?
ROCHESTER, N.Y.-(Business Wire)-May 21, 2008 - A new Financial Times / Harris Poll finds that a majority of adults in Germany (55%) and France (54%) believe their leaders, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, should not attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in China this summer. In addition, pluralities in Italy (48%), Japan (45%), the United States (43%), and Great Britain (43%) as well as 39 percent of adults in Spain also believe their country's leader should skip this year's Opening Olympic ceremonies.
Additional results from the Financial Times/Harris Poll conducted online by Harris Interactive(R) among a total of 8,748 adults (aged 16-64) within France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, and the United States, adults (aged 18-64) in Italy and Japan, and adults (aged 18-60) in China between 30 April and 14 May 2008 include:
— More than three-quarters of adults in France (84%) and half the adults in Germany (51%) say they have heard a lot about the recent global protests surrounding the freeing of Tibet from Chinese rule;
— Pluralities in China itself (46%), Great Britain (44%) and the United States (41%) have also heard a lot about these protests;
— At least three in five adults in Italy (60%), Japan (66%), and Spain (68%) have heard at least a little about the protests;
— Three-quarters of adults in Italy (75%) and Germany (74%), two-thirds of adults in Japan (69%), France (67%) and Spain (64%) and a majority of adults in the United States (59%) and Great Britain (53%) all believe Tibet should not be under Chinese rule.
Human Rights as Foreign Policy
One of the issues surrounding all of these concerns is human rights as part of a foreign policy strategy:
— Very strong majorities in the five European countries, the United States and Japan (between 56% in Japan and 85% in Italy) believe that human rights should be a central figure of their country's foreign policy;
— Interestingly, a plurality of Chinese adults (45%) believe human rights should be a central part of China's foreign policy compared to 38 percent who say that it should not be a central feature of their foreign policy.
Methodology
The FT/Harris Poll was conducted online by Harris Interactive among a total of 8,748 adults (aged 16-64) within France (1,288), Germany (1,106), Great Britain (1,088), Spain (1,120), and the United States (1,046), adults (aged 18-64) in Italy (1,087) and Japan (1,002) and adults (aged 18-60) in China (1,011) between 30 April and 14 May 2008. Figures for age, sex, education, region and Internet usage were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. A full methodology and data tables are available at www.harrisinteractive.com.
These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls and of the British Polling Council. -0- *T J6867 Q1300, 1305, 1310, 1315 *T
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
Harris Interactive Inc. 5/08
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