More people around the world now favour China over the US, Pew study suggests

More people around the world now hold a more favourable view of China compared to the United States, according to a new Pew Research Center study. The findings suggest a shift in global public sentiment toward the two major powers, with 25 out of 36 countries surveyed showing greater support for China than for the U.S. This marks the first time in the center’s nearly two-decade-long tracking of global attitudes toward these superpowers that such a widespread preference for China has occurred. The survey asked respondents to rate their opinions of the U.S. and China on a scale ranging from very favorable to very unfavorable. In many countries, the number of people expressing favorable views of China exceeded those for the U.S., particularly in nations like Spain, Indonesia, Italy, Greece, and Canada, where shifts toward China were most pronounced. Only six countries, Poland, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Japan, and Israel, still showed stronger favorability toward the U.S., mostly traditional allies of the American nation. According to Jonathan Schulman, one of the study’s researchers, the data reflects a steady decline in the median favorable opinion of the U.S. across 20 countries in recent years, while the median favorable opinion of China has been increasing. The research team also noted that in more than a third of the countries surveyed, positive views of China have grown significantly in recent years, especially when considering an expanded dataset that includes the U.S. itself. Positive perceptions of China reached record highs in several regions this year, including Italy, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Turkey. The study identified a trend where middle-income countries generally expressed more favorable views of China, whereas wealthier nations tended to show more negative assessments. An exception to this pattern was Singapore, which boasted the highest GDP per capita among the surveyed countries yet maintained a relatively high level of positivity toward China. In the Asia-Pacific region, the survey revealed the most extreme differences in perception. Approximately 90% of Pakistanis appeared to favor China, while only 11% of Japanese respondents shared the same sentiment. The survey also included questions about trust in national leaders, asking respondents whether they had confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping and former U.S. President Donald Trump to handle world affairs correctly. Overall, confidence in both leaders remained low, with most scores falling below 50%. However, in many countries, respondents expressed more confidence in Xi than in Trump. The highest level of confidence in Xi was recorded in Pakistan at 83%, while the lowest was in Japan at 7%. For Trump, the highest score came from the Philippines at 68%, and the lowest was in the West Bank/East Jerusalem at 4%. Schulman observed that people generally held weaker opinions about Xi compared to other leaders, whereas responses regarding Trump often leaned toward the extremes. Despite the growing favorability toward China, the survey indicated that a majority of respondents still believe the U.S. government respects personal freedoms more than the Chinese government does, though the gap between these beliefs has narrowed. Additional questions posed in several middle-income countries explored views on the foreign policies of the two superpowers. A median of 75% of respondents felt the U.S. interferes heavily in the affairs of other countries, while 45% held the same belief about China. Other organizations have conducted similar studies in recent years. Gallup reported last year that China surpassed the U.S. in global approval ratings, marking the largest gap in favor of China in 20 years. However, the Asia Society’s annual survey on global public opinion about China suggested that the country’s image, which had declined during the pandemic, had only partially recovered. Chong Ja Ian, a non-resident scholar with Carnegie China, stated that the Pew findings were not unexpected, citing the volatility of U.S. policy, including military actions and associated economic consequences, as factors contributing to global unease.