More people around the world now favour China over the US, Pew study suggests
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- Pew Research Center surveyed more than 42,000 people across 36 countries between February and May, finding favorable views of China surpassed those of the United States in 25 of 36 nations — the first such result since the think tank began tracking superpower sentiment in 2002.
- Spain, Indonesia, Italy, Greece and Canada recorded the biggest swings toward China, while only six countries — Poland, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Japan and Israel, most staunch US allies — still favor the United States more.
- Middle-income countries generally view China positively while wealthier countries view it negatively; Singapore, the highest-GDP nation in the survey, bucked that pattern with high favorability toward Beijing.
- Asia-Pacific registered the survey's most extreme readings on China, with 90% favorability in Pakistan versus just 11% in Japan, and Xi Jinping's personal confidence scores ranging from 83% in Pakistan to 7% in Japan.
- Xi Jinping outpolled Donald Trump on confidence to 'do the right thing' in world affairs across most countries surveyed, though both leaders' median scores landed below 50% and Schulman noted respondents tended to feel more strongly about Trump than about Xi.
- The United States was still seen as more respectful of personal freedoms than China — though the gap narrowed — while a median 75% of respondents in middle-income countries said the US interferes in other countries' affairs 'a great deal or a fair amount,' compared with 45% who said the same of China.
- Carnegie China scholar Chong Ja Ian attributed the shift to "the volatility of US policy, including the use of force and the resulting economic harm," noting the survey began shortly after Trump's Greenland annexation rhetoric, the capture of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and the launch of the US war with Iran.
Why it matters: This is the first time Pew's 24-year tracking has shown China leading the US in so many countries, and the shift coincided with Trump's second-term Greenland rhetoric, the Venezuela operation and the Iran war. Middle-income and developing nations drove the gains while Japan, South Korea and Poland remained holdouts — signaling a realigning global order rather than uniform anti-Americanism.
