To assess the perception of China in Latvia prior to the5th Meeting of Heads of Government of Central and EasternEuropean Countries and China, a survey among Latvianpolitical science students – the future civil servants,politicians and experts – was carried out in October 2016.Bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral students from RīgaStradiņš University, University of Latvia and VidzemeUniversity of Applied Sciences were asked to provide theiropinions related to their perception of China.

From the survey, several conclusions can be drawn.First, the majority of respondents have a limited knowledgeof China. Only 5,2 % of them have been to China and thevast majority of the respondents assess their knowledge ofChina as low or average (altogether – 89,6 %). Only 6,9%assess their knowledge of China at intermediate or expertlevel. The humble self-assessment of the knowledge isreflected also in the actual knowledge and assessment ofthe impression of China: one half of the respondents have aneutral impression of China whereas the rest is almostequally distributed between having positive and negativeopinion on China.

Among the respondents, the strongest associationswith China is the Great Wall, a huge population, socialismand communism, a significant economy and market,pollution, as well as a difficult language and the Tibet issue(all of the mentioned above received recognition above50% of the respondents). Among the best known Chinese,only two prevail – Confucius and Mao Zedong. Among thebest known cities and regions of China, Shanghai ranks first,followed by Tibet and Beijing, whereas other cities and 9 provinces fall far behind in their level of recognition.

When the perception of the attitude of China and Latviavis-à-vis one another as states is assessed, it prevails that,even though a major part of the respondents consider themutual attitude as rather friendly (between 41,4% and43,1%), nevertheless, it is perceived that Latvia conducts afriendlier attitude towards China than China does towardsLatvia: 25,9% of the respondents consider the attitude ofLatvia towards China as friendly, but only 12,1 % of them consider the attitude of China towards Latvia as friendly.

In regard to the respondents’ attitudes towards theprospects of investment from China in Latvia, equal parts ofrespondents (43,1%) are either neutral or positive towardsit. Most of the respondents (72,4%) consider thatinvestment in Latvia’s transport and energy infrastructurewould be necessary, whereas such sectors asmanufacturing of electronic or mechanical products also receive support from more than a half of the respondents.When it comes to the “16+1” cooperation format, theresults of the survey reveal that more than a half of them(56,9%) have never before heard of the “16+1”cooperation format and over two thirds (70,7%) have notheard that the 5th Meeting of Heads of Government of Centraland Eastern European Countries and China is taking place in Riga, Latvia.

Even though the results of the survey cannot be

absolutely generalized, they still reflect the perception ofChina in Latvia. It could be argued that collections ofopinions in the Latvian society at large could provide evenless informed opinions on the issues addressed in the survey(the students questioned are obliged to follow issues ofpolitical nature on regular basis). Therefore, for both Latvia-China relationship and the “16+1” format to be successfuland enduring, deepening of the mutual knowledge andunderstanding between China in Latvia is crucial.