China, Xi top US, Trump in global favourability
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Live Events as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Addas a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Washington: The world has largely viewed the U.S. more favorably than China for years, but those opinions have flipped in Beijing's favor this year, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, a remarkable shift driven in part by tensions between the Trump administration and U.S. allies.More people have favorable views of China than the U.S. in 25 out of the 36 countries and territories that were surveyed, including Canada and Mexico. The poll was conducted from February to May, a period when the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran.In only six countries do people still see the U.S. more positively than China, according to the findings released Wednesday.Views in 22 out of the 36 countries and territories also are more favorable of Chinese leader Xi Jinping than U.S. President Donald Trump, including in Canada, Mexico and major European powers including France, Germany and the U.K. However, people in many of the countries have low confidence in both men.It marks the first time in the roughly 20 years Pew has been tracking global opinions that China has been viewed more positively than the U.S., said Laura Silver, associate director of Pew's Global Attitudes Research and one of the researchers on the study.
Views of Beijing and Washington have been very similar at some points in the past but have not been significantly more favorable for China until now, she said.The shift follows the COVID-19 pandemic becoming a distant issue and as global views of the U.S. have soured, Silver said."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," she said.Trump's demands to control Greenland, the American military raid that captured Venezuela's then-leader Nicolas Maduro, and the U.S. handling of the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza also have led 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.Aside from benefiting from the fading memory of the pandemic, China appears to have gained 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," the researcher said.Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson, said, "President Trump has done more for global stability than anyone else," listing Trump's achievements as having "obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities" and "eliminated hundreds of narcoterrorists.""President Trump is the leader of the free world, and thanks to his bold leadership the United States of America has never been stronger," Wales said.The Chinese Embassy in Washington said the latest poll "demonstrates that China's governance achievements and development progress are widely recognized."Notably, those in some U.S. allied countries have drastically shifted their views in recent years, such as Canada.
The BriefWire