What do Beijing residents think of Trump's visit to China?

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US President Donald Trump’s approval ratings may be sinking in the US, but Chinese social media traffic may indicate that his popularity is surging in China.

According to a Reuters report, Trump’s free-wheeling, politically incorrect style has won him a lot of Chinese fans – unlike back home.

A new Washington Post/ABC News interactive poll shows that fewer than 37 percent of Americans approve of his job performance.

There is no such survey on this side of the Pacific, but in Chinese social media Trump has die-hard fans as ardent as his base in Pennsylvania’s coal towns.

CGTN’s White House Correspondent Jessica Stone hit the streets of Beijing to hear for herself what people are saying about Trump.

Vicky Lang works for a US consumer goods company in Beijing. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to have him here,” said Lang. “If the political environment is friendly, we would love to see that. And, of course, we ship great products. So, we hope people love that.”

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping tour the Conservation Scientific Laboratory of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, November 8, 2017. /Reuters Photo

On Trump’s repeated criticism of the 347-billion-US-dollar China-US trade deficit, she said her company has been taking steps to address that. “We’ve moved some factories back to the US,” she said.

Andrew Sia is in IT. He has worked for major Chinese tech giants such as Baidu. “I think this meeting will improve our relationships a lot,” said Sia. “I was a senior software engineer for big Chinese Internet company. Baidu has some centers in the US. We’ll get more job opportunities in the US.”

Snow Zhou addressed our questions in Mandarin. Through a translator, he said, “It’s a good step for developing the China-US relationship." Zhou says he hopes that this visit can change the public opinion towards Trump. “Trump’s behavior is very interesting,” he said. “I think it’s good for China and US president to meet with each other.”

“They are two big countries. I think they need to talk about how they should cooperate in the future,” said Jacob Zhou in English.

On China-US coordination over the Korean nuclear issue, Zhou said: “North Korea (DPRK) probably has nuclear weapons, and I think for US and China, the first priority, let North Korea (DPRK) not continue on the way of nuclear because that’s not peaceful. War… it’s not good. A better way is negotiation.”

Wang Min, an attorney, answered our questions in Chinese. “I think President Trump is generally a good person and US-China relations are the most important in the world,” she said. “And, I note that Trump comes after the 19th Party Congress. I hope this visit will help people’s daily lives.”