WOW SURVEY: U.S. Presidential Election and Iraq War

In a small-scale survey carried out by WOW staff, 690 students from over 30 major universities across China, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University, Wuhan University, Southwest University of Science and Technology, and Xiamen University, were questioned about the upcoming American presidential election and the war in Iraq:

Over 81 percent were concerned about the presidential election. About 52 percent of students predicted that Kerry would win the election compared to 40 percent who thought President Bush would be reelected, with the exception of 8 percent of students who found it hard to decide.

When asked about their opinion of the Iraq war, an overwhelming 85 percent of the students considered the war to be unjust. Only 7 percent considered it to be justified while another 8 percent remained neutral. The survey also indicated that about half of the students were most concerned about the refugees of the war, and 23 percent focused on the war itself.