More people around the world now favour China over the US, Pew study suggests — SkimNews
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Pew Research Center found that in 25 of 36 countries surveyed, more respondents held favorable views of China than of the United States — the first time the center has recorded such a result since it began tracking global sentiment toward the superpowers in 2002.
- The survey polled more than 42,000 people across 36 countries between February and May, and researchers noted that previous US favorability dips in 2008 and 2017 still left China views on par with or slightly below those of the US.
- Spain, Indonesia, Italy, Greece, and Canada recorded the largest swings toward China, while only six countries — Poland, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Japan, and Israel, most of them staunch US allies — still favored the United States.
- Middle-income countries generally viewed China positively while wealthier countries viewed it negatively, with Singapore standing out as a high-GDP exception with high China favorability; the widest spread came in the Asia-Pacific, with 90% of Pakistanis viewing China favorably versus just 11% of Japanese.
- Xi Jinping outscored Donald Trump on confidence to do the right thing in world affairs across most countries surveyed, earning 83% confidence in Pakistan and a low of 7% in Japan, while Trump drew 68% in the Philippines but just 4% in the West Bank/East Jerusalem.
- A median of 75% of respondents in middle-income countries felt the US interfered in other countries' affairs a great deal or fair amount, compared with 45% who said the same of China — a gap researchers cited as a key driver of the favorability shift.
Why it matters: The shift is driven less by enthusiasm for Beijing than by distrust of Washington: a median 75% of middle-income respondents see the US as interfering abroad versus 45% for China, and both leaders score below 50% confidence in most countries. For the United States, this means even traditional allies like South Korea and Japan are not insulating it from the trend, narrowing America's diplomatic selling space. For China, record-high favorability in countries like Italy, Mexico, and Nigeria gives Beijing soft-power headroom despite low personal confidence in Xi.
Ask SkimNews
