A new survey by the US think tank Pew Research Center shows that, for the first time, China has a more favourable image than the United States in a greater number of countries around the world.
The research centre surveyed more than 42,000 people in 36 countries between February and May this year. The results found that in 25 countries, the proportion of respondents with a favourable view of China was higher than the proportion with a favourable view of the United States. This is the first time such a result has emerged since Pew began tracking the global images of China and the US in 2002.
The survey showed that perceptions of China had shifted more significantly in countries including Spain, Indonesia, Italy, Greece and Canada. The six countries that still leaned more towards the US were mostly traditional American allies, including Japan, South Korea, India, the Philippines, Poland and Israel.
However, the survey does not mean that respondents generally have a high level of trust in the Chinese government or Chinese leaders. Overall, respondents expressed low levels of confidence in both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, although in many countries confidence in Xi Jinping was still higher than confidence in Trump.
Respondents generally believed that the United States respected individual freedoms more than China, but more people also believed that the US interfered more frequently in the affairs of other countries. In the survey, 75 per cent of respondents said the US interfered with other countries to a considerable or great extent, compared with 45 per cent who said the same about China.
Experts, however, also cautioned that rising favourability towards China does not mean criticism of its political system, human rights and foreign policy has disappeared. The results may reflect not only an improvement in China’s image, but also changing levels of global trust in the United States.
Commentary:
The United States has long portrayed itself as a representative of freedom, democracy and the international order. However, when its foreign policy is inconsistent and it frequently intervenes in the affairs of other countries, even using military and economic means to deal with international issues, other countries will naturally reassess whether the US is a reliable partner or an unpredictable superpower.
However, China should not interpret these results as meaning that the international community has fully embraced China. A country may be viewed more favourably simply because, by comparison, another major power has become more disappointing. China itself continues to face considerable criticism over human rights, individual freedoms and its increasingly assertive foreign policy.
Therefore, this survey should serve as a warning to both China and the US. The United States cannot assume that the international trust it has built in the past will last forever, while China cannot directly interpret disappointment with the US as support for itself. In the long term, genuine international influence depends not only on economic strength, but also on the ability to earn trust.