China overtakes U.S. in global favorability poll

China is now viewed more favorably than the United States across much of the world, a Pew Research Center survey found, marking the first time in about two decades of Pew polling that Beijing has held a clear global edge over Washington.

The survey, released Wednesday, found that more people have favorable views of China than of the U.S. in 25 of the 36 countries and territories surveyed, including Canada and Mexico. Only six countries — Israel, Japan, India, South Korea, the Philippines and Poland — viewed the U.S. more positively than China.

The results reflect a sharp shift in international attitudes at a time of strained relations between the Trump administration and several U.S. allies. Pew conducted the poll from February to May, during a period when the United States and Israel were engaged in a war against Iran.

Views of Chinese leader Xi Jinping also surpassed those of U.S. President Donald Trump in 22 of the 36 countries and territories, including Canada, Mexico and major European powers such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Pew said many countries still expressed low confidence in both leaders.

Laura Silver, associate director of Pew’s Global Attitudes Research and one of the researchers on the study, said China and the U.S. had posted similar favorability ratings at some points in the past, but China had not previously been viewed significantly more favorably than the U.S.

“There was just an actual relationship between the outbreak of the war and the sense that the U.S. is just not contributing to peace and stability and that people have less confidence in Donald Trump,” Silver said.

She said the shift comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has become a more distant issue and global views of the U.S. have worsened. Trump’s demands to control Greenland, an American military raid that captured Venezuela’s then-leader Nicolás Maduro, and U.S. handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza also contributed to low approval in many countries, Silver said.

“The U.S. has done a lot in terms of global engagement in recent months to years that is not being perceived positively internationally,” she said.

China, meanwhile, appears to have benefited from comparison with the U.S., Silver said. “By comparison, we know that China is seen to be a more reliable partner in many places. It’s more likely to be seen to contribute to global peace and stability,” she said.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said the poll “demonstrates that China’s governance achievements and development progress are widely recognised,” The Guardian reported. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to The Guardian.

The shift has been especially pronounced in Canada. Pew found that 33% of Canadians now hold positive views of the U.S., down from 57% in 2023. Over the same period, favorable views of China in Canada rose from 14% to 44%. Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian goods last year and said Canada could become “the 51st state.”

Several major European countries, including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands, also switched in favor of China over the U.S. In the United Kingdom, where about six in 10 people held positive views of the U.S. in 2023, views of China and the U.S. are now similar. Three years ago, Washington held a 32-point advantage there.

Israel remains the strongest exception. About eight in 10 Israelis view the U.S. positively, compared with 19% who view China positively. The other countries where the U.S. remains ahead are Japan, India, South Korea, the Philippines and Poland, though Pew found that their views of the U.S. have also dimmed in recent years.

The U.S. still leads China on perceptions that its government respects personal freedoms, but Pew said that gap is narrowing. The change is driven largely by people in nearly every surveyed country becoming less likely since 2021 to say the U.S. government respects its people’s personal freedoms.

Pew surveyed more than 42,000 people across 35 countries plus the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Margins of error ranged from 2.3 to 5.5 percentage points, depending on the country.