Pew Survey: China Surpasses US in Global Favorability

By Staff, Agencies

China and President Xi Jinping are now viewed more favorably than the United States and President Donald Trump across much of the world, according to a new Pew Research Center survey covering 36 countries and territories across six continents.

The survey, released on Wednesday, found that China enjoys a more favorable image than the United States in 25 of the 36 countries surveyed, including Canada and Mexico. The trend was especially pronounced across the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.

The United States was viewed more favorably than China in only six countries: Poland, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Japan, and “Israel,” while public opinion was evenly divided in five others.

Conducted between February 8 and May 13 among more than 42,000 respondents, the survey found that in the 20 countries with comparable data since 2023, 46% now hold favorable views of China compared with 36% for the United States.

Three years earlier, those figures stood at 32% for China and 58% for the US.

Respondents in 22 countries also expressed greater confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping than in Donald Trump, although confidence in both leaders remained generally limited.

The United States maintained an advantage only in perceptions of respect for personal freedoms, though Pew said the gap was relatively narrow.

Laura Silver, Pew's associate director and co-author of the report, said this marks the first time in nearly two decades of the organization's global polling that China has been viewed more positively than the United States.

She attributed the shift to perceptions of China as a more reliable international partner and improving views following its post-pandemic recovery, while noting that global attitudes toward the United States deteriorated after the Trump administration launched military operations against Iran.

Silver said respondents increasingly viewed the United States as contributing less to international peace and stability, resulting in lower confidence in President Trump.

Some of Washington's closest allies recorded the sharpest changes. In Canada, favorable views of the United States fell from 57% in 2023 to 33%, while favorable views of China rose from 14% to 44%.

Pew linked the decline to US tariffs on Canadian goods and President Trump's repeated suggestions that Canada should become America's "51st state."

Major European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, also recorded improved perceptions of China amid worsening relations with Washington over trade disputes, pressure on NATO allies to increase defense spending, disagreements over the US war on Iran, and repeated US calls for Denmark to sell Greenland.

The survey also found that public opinion across Latin America now slightly favors China over the United States, following a period of heightened tensions with Washington over US policies toward Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, and Cuba.