Most Chinese content with nation's direction: survey

China's strong economy and the upcoming Olympic Games have helped boost the nation's confidence in the the general direction of their country, a survey conducted as part of the Pew Research Center's Pew Global Attitudes Project says.

China ranked first in the above mentioned categories among 24 countries surveyed, which serves to show that China “is clearly a nation that sees itself as ascendant, and that leads to tremendous satisfaction with the way things are going nationwide, even though the people are still struggling on an individual level," The New York Times quotes Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, as saying.

86 percent of the Chinese people surveyed said they were happy with the direction the country is heading, up from 48 percent in 2002. Australia placed second at 61 percent.

82 percent of Chinese were satisfied with their national economy, up from 52 percent, The New York Times says.

In sharp contrast, only 23 percent of people surveyed in the United States said they were content with their country’s direction, and only 20 percent felt optimistic about the American economy.

Russians were the third most-satisfied people with their country’s direction, at 54 percent.

Spain placed fourth with a 50 percent satisfaction rate, leaving other major European countries far behind. Only about 3 in 10 British, French and Germans were satisfied with their country's direction, the survey showed.

However, the survey did detect concern in China over the rising cost of living (96 percent), corruption (78 percent), air pollution (74 percent) and water pollution (66 percent), the New York Times says.

65 percent of the Chinese were happy with the government's actions on matters most important to them, the survey showed. The majority of Chinese was also in favor of the national one-child policy, with a 76-percent approval rate, CRI says.

In the Olympic host city of Beijing, nearly half of the respondents felt that people were paying too much attention to the Games. Nevertheless, there was strong optimism that the Games would improve China’s image. 96 percent of the respondents said they believed China’s hosting of the Games would prove successful, placing some pressure on the organizers.

The Chinese are also quite confident that their country's athletes would be the top winners at the Games, with 75 percent saying their national team will win the most medals.