For the first time in the roughly 20 years that the Pew Research Center has tracked global public opinion, China is being viewed more favorably than the United States in a majority of countries surveyed. According to findings released on Wednesday, this represents a remarkable shift in international sentiment, moving away from a long-standing trend where the U.S. was generally viewed more positively than Beijing. Laura Silver, an associate director of Pew's Global Attitudes Research and a researcher on the study, noted that while views of the two nations have been similar in the past, they have not previously favored China to this significant degree.
The survey, which was conducted between February and May of this year, covers 36 countries and territories. During this period, the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran. The data reveals that in 25 of these 36 nations, including Canada and Mexico, more people hold favorable views of China than of the U.S. Conversely, there are only six countries where the U.S. is still viewed more positively than China. Among these six, Israel leads with approximately 8 in 10 Israelis viewing the U.S. favorably, compared to 19% for China. The other five nations where the U.S. maintains a lead are Japan, India, South Korea, the Philippines, and Poland, though even in these countries, favorability toward the U.S. has dimmed in recent years.
Leadership perceptions have followed a similar trajectory. In 22 of the 36 surveyed regions, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is viewed more favorably than U.S. President Donald Trump. This includes major European powers such as France, Germany, and the U.K., as well as Canada and Mexico. However, the study highlights that in many of these countries, respondents express low confidence in both men. Silver explained that the shift is partly driven by the perception that the U.S. is not contributing to global peace and stability. She noted a clear relationship between the outbreak of the war and a decline in confidence in Donald Trump.
Specific U.S. actions have contributed to this international souring, according to Silver. These include the U.S. handling of the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, the American military raid that captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, and President Trump's demands to control Greenland. Silver stated that the U.S. has engaged in various actions in recent years that are not being perceived positively on the international stage. Furthermore, as the COVID-19 pandemic has become a more distant issue, China has benefited from a comparison where it is increasingly seen as a more reliable partner that contributes to global peace and stability.
The shift is particularly stark in some U.S. allied nations. In Canada, for instance, only 33% of people now hold positive views of the U.S., a significant drop from 57% in 2023. During that same timeframe, favorable opinions of China among Canadians rose from 14% to 44%. This decline in U.S. favorability follows a period of trade friction, including a barrage of tariffs imposed by Trump on Canadian goods and the President's claim that Canada could be the "51st state." Major European countries, including Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands, have also shifted their opinions toward the two global powers. In the U.K., where about 6 in 10 people held positive views of the U.S. in 2023, the public now views China and the U.S. similarly, erasing a 32-percentage-point lead the U.S. held just three years ago.
Regarding the perception of government respect for personal freedoms, the U.S. still holds an advantage over China, though the gap is narrowing. The Pew report indicates that this trend is largely driven by the fact that people in nearly every country surveyed have become less likely to say the U.S. government respects the personal freedoms of its citizens since the question was last asked in 2021. The comprehensive study surveyed more than 42,000 people across 35 countries, plus the West Bank and east Jerusalem, with margins of error ranging from 2.3 to 5.5 percentage points.
