Pew poll reveals global favourability towards China surpasses US for first time in two decades

A poll released by the Pew Research Center on 15 July 2026 indicates a historic reversal in global public opinion, with China now viewed more favourably than the United States in 25 of 36 surveyed countries and territories. The findings, based on data collected between February and May 2026, mark the first time in nearly two decades that international sentiment has tilted in Beijing’s favour, reversing a long-standing trend that previously saw Washington hold higher ratings.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is viewed more positively than US President Donald Trump in 22 of these jurisdictions. The shift is attributed to a combination of US foreign policy actions and domestic governance issues, including tariffs on Canadian goods, a military raid in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of former leader Nicolas Maduro, and tensions regarding the war in Gaza. Laura Silver, associate director of Pew’s Global Attitudes Research, noted that the US has engaged in global activities in recent months that are not being perceived positively internationally.

The survey highlights significant drops in favourability among traditional US allies. In Canada, positive views of the US fell from 57 per cent in 2023 to 33 per cent in the new survey, while favourable opinions of China rose from 14 per cent to 44 per cent. This change coincides with Trump administration policies that included imposing tariffs on Canadian goods and claims that Canada could become the “51st state”. Major European powers, including France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands, have also shifted their opinions toward China or view the two economies similarly.

In the United Kingdom, the gap in favourability narrowed significantly from a 32-percentage-point lead for the US in 2023 to parity in the current survey. Despite the overall shift, the US retains an advantage over China regarding government respect for personal freedoms, although this gap is shrinking. Pew reports that this narrowing is driven largely by decreased confidence in US domestic governance rather than increased confidence in China, with people in nearly every surveyed country becoming less likely to say the US government respects its people’s personal freedoms since 2021.

Only six countries maintain a more favourable view of the US, led by Israel where 80 per cent view the US positively compared to 19 per cent for China. The other nations are Japan, India, South Korea, the Philippines and Poland. Even in these countries, views of the US have dimmed over recent years. The 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 depending on the country.