China is now viewed more favorably than the United States across most of the countries and territories surveyed by the Pew Research Center, according to a report the organization released on Wednesday.
China received higher favorability ratings than the US in 27 of 36 countries and territories examined, including the US' nearest neighbors — Canada and Mexico — and its allies, such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
By contrast, the US was viewed more positively in only nine countries, including India, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea. The gap is especially large in several Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries.
Pew said the findings were based on interviews with 42,151 adults conducted from Feb 8 to May 13 in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. The center said the results marked a recent reversal because people in these countries and territories had previously viewed the US more positively than China.
Pew's report examined how respondents in 17 middle-income countries viewed the foreign-policy roles of China and the US. It found that a median of 75 percent said the US interfered in other countries' affairs, compared with 45 percent who said the same about China. In nearly every place surveyed, more people see the US as an interferer than China, the report said.
