New Delhi: Has China’s global image overtaken that of the US? How do people around the globe perceive China and the US on issues like influence, interference in the domestic affairs of other countries and personal freedom of their citizens?
A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center between February and May this year found that China is being seen as a country more favourable when compared to the US. For instance, median favorability for China has risen from 32 to 46, while for the US it has fallen from 58 to 36.The most notable finding is a flip in how China is now perceived globally. There was a time when public opinion for China was very negative, but now favourability towards it has increased in more than a third of the 36 countries surveyed for this study. One of the biggest changes that can be seen is in Italy where the positive view of the country has increased from 31 percent in 2022 to 51 percent in 2026. This has happened for the first time in nearly two decades where more than half of Italians now see China positively.
Another country where the positive views have increased for China is Spain with 54 percent having favourable views of the country, a first since 2011.But this is not happening in all the countries as there are some where a sharp decline has been noted in the favourable views of China. Israel is one such example, where the views dropped from 33 percent last year to just 19 percent this year.Meanwhile, the US has a clear popularity advantage over China in just six countries, four of these in the Asia-Pacific region: Poland, India, Israel, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea.India is one of the few major countries where the public opinion still remains strongly for the US, while 54 percent Indians have an unfavourable view of China; just 23 percent see it favourably.Xi beats Trump
