A new global survey shows that America's once-dominant image abroad has slipped, with China now viewed more favourably than the United States across most of the 36 countries polled. According to the Pew Research Center, 25 of the 36 countries and territories surveyed hold a more positive opinion of China than of the US, a sharp reversal from years in which the US consistently outscored China in global public opinion.
Survey Scope and Headline Numbers
The survey was conducted between February and May, a period that overlapped with the US and Israel launching a military campaign against Iran. Across the 36 countries and territories polled, people in 25 of them expressed a more favourable view of China than of the United States, including in Canada and Mexico, both of which share a border with the US. Released on Wednesday, the survey found that only six countries still hold a more positive view of the US than of China.
Trump vs Xi Jinping: China's Leader Ahead in 22 Countries
It isn't just the two countries' images that have shifted, opinions of their leaders have moved too. In 22 of the 36 countries and territories surveyed, people viewed Chinese President Xi Jinping more positively than US President Donald Trump. That list includes Canada and Mexico as well as major European allies of the US such as France, Germany and Britain. At the same time, the survey found that in some countries, trust in both leaders was low, meaning the shift isn't simply a swing toward China's leadership but also reflects broader unease with America's.
Laura Silver: First Time in Two Decades
Laura Silver, associate director of global attitudes research at the Pew Research Center and one of the researchers behind the study, said that in roughly two decades of tracking global public opinion, this is the first time China has been viewed more positively than the United States. She said opinions of the two countries have often been close in the past, but this is the clearest tilt toward China the surveys have ever recorded.
Covid Fading, But US Policies Widened the Gap
According to Silver, two factors are mainly behind the shift. The first is that memories of the Covid-19 pandemic have faded, which has worked in China's favour. The second, and bigger, factor is that global perceptions of the United States have weakened. Silver said that after recent wars and international developments, people in many countries have come to feel that the US isn't contributing to global peace and stability the way it was expected to, and that trust in President Trump has fallen as a result.
She added that Trump's claims about taking control of Greenland, US military action against Venezuela's then leader Nicolas Maduro, and America's role in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza have all weakened support for the US in several countries. She said that over recent months and years, many of Washington's policies simply haven't been viewed positively by the international community, and that frustration now shows up clearly in the survey numbers. China, meanwhile, has benefited both from fading pandemic memories and from the direct comparison, with people in many countries now seeing it as a more reliable partner and a bigger contributor to global peace and stability.
Canada's Reversal and Britain's Vanished Lead
Among some of America's closest allies, opinion has flipped entirely over just a few years. Canada is the clearest example: the share of people holding a positive view of the US there fell from 57 percent in 2023 to just 33 percent now, while positive views of China rose from 14 percent to 44 percent over the same period. Much of that shift is being linked to Trump's decision last year to impose tariffs on goods imported from Canada, and his repeated remarks that Canada could become the 51st state of the US.
Canada isn't alone. Major European countries including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands also recorded notable shifts in how people view the world's two largest economies. Britain's numbers are especially striking: around 60 percent of people there held a positive view of the US in 2023, but opinions of the US and China are now roughly even. Three years ago, the US held a 32 percentage point lead over China on this measure in Britain, a lead that has now completely disappeared.
Only Six Countries Still Favor the US
Just six countries in the entire survey still show a more positive view of the US than of China. Israel tops that list, with around 80 percent of people expressing a positive opinion of the US compared with just 19 percent for China. The other five are Japan, India, South Korea, the Philippines and Poland. Even in these six countries, though, positive views of the US have declined in recent years, meaning the US lead, while still real, is nowhere near as strong as it used to be.
One Area Where the US Still Leads: Personal Freedom
There is one measure on which the US still comes out ahead of China: respect for personal freedom. According to the Pew report, people continue to view the US as doing better than China on respecting individual liberty. However, researchers note that even on this front, the gap between the two countries is steadily narrowing.
