Abysmal global literacy of US college students

The poor global literacy of college-aged students in the United States revealed in a recent survey provides a clue to why US politicians can publicly and falsely accuse China time and again.

The global literacy survey, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Geographic Society, found that only one-quarter of the students knew that China is a country with veto power over United Nations Security Council resolutions due to its status as a permanent member of the council.

Less than half (49 percent) knew that Mandarin Chinese was spoken by the most people in the world as their primary language. And 67 percent believe China has a larger economy than the US, some-thing only true according to an IMF report comparing purchasing power. Only 29 percent think the US economy is larger.