Four in ten Americans see China's economic might as a big threat to U.S. interests, lower than the 52 percent survey results in the past two years, a Gallup annual World Affairs poll shows.

The survey says, since 2014, Americans have changed their minds about seeing China's economic clout from important to not a dominant or worst threat.

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Gallup says the drop in polled Americans threatened by China's economy could be due to the climb of other security and political matters in the world stage such as the tense situation in Ukraine and the spread of Islamic State.

The polling firm adds the recovering U.S. economy, by any yardstick, has grown while China's has definitely slowed, making the Chinese economy apparently less of a menace than when the U.S. was struggling to get out of a recession.

Americans' views about which nation is the globe's leading economic power had changed from the U.S. to China in the past couple of years when the U.S. economy was weak.

Based on the latest poll, 12 percent of Americans mention China when asked which nation is the U.S.' worst enemy. It is lower than the 23 percent in 2012 and the 20 percent in 2014. China is currently listed behind North Korea and Russia after Beijing topped the list in 2014 and finished second to Iran in 2012.

Gallup says China is unique from other nations because, usually, its rank among the top U.S. enemies signifies mainly an economic threat. North Korea, Iraq, Iran and Russia all represent more of a security threat.

Americans' core views of China are basically the same from a year ago and they are less likely to mention China as the top U.S. enemy. The latest numbers show half of Americans hold an unfavorable view of China while 44 percent have a favorable one. In 2014, 53 percent found China unfavorable while 43 percent favorable. 

TagsU.S., Gallup