What part of "somewhat" didn't you understand?

The International Herald Tribune doesn't come out on Sundays here in Japan. I'm reduced to the The Daily Yomiuri (or, as I like to put it, the "Gomi-uri" [trash vendor]) Today's top headline 'Amity needed between U.S., Japan, China' -- in quotes because it's the result of a poll of university students in Japan and in China.

What I liked was the poll results pie-chart. Asked "Should Japan, China and the United States strengthen their respective ties?", 60.3% of Chinese students and 46.3% of Japanese students answered "Yes." HOWEVER, 30.4% of Chinese and 42.7% of Japanese answered "Somewhat."

"Somewhat"?

Now, I don't know how it works in China, but here in Japan, a good translation of "somewhat" into Japanese is chotto. And a good translation of chotto back into English is "no (but I'm too polite and refined to say so.)"

In addition, 6.2% of Chinese and 6.3% of Japanese answered "Not really." 2.1% of Chinese and 3.1% of Japanese just sprinted way the hell out on a limb and answered "No."

So how I add all this up: 38.7% of the Chinese students said "no", as opposed 52.1% of the Japanese students. Which rather belies the conclusions of the article. But what else do you expect from The Daily Gomi-uri?