TLDR
Pew Research Center surveyed 42,151 people across 36 countries and found China's median global favourability climbed to 46% in 2026, overtaking the US which dropped to 36%. The 12-percentage-point fall in US favourability in a single year is the sharpest recorded in the survey series, with Trump's handling of tariffs, Gaza, Iran and Ukraine cited as key drivers. The US is now viewed more positively than China in only six of the 36 countries surveyed, including India, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea. Canada and Mexico both now view China more favourably than the US.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
China edges ahead in global favourability
China's median global favourability reached 46% in 2026, up from 38% in 2025, while the United States fell to 36% from 48% over the same period.verifiedVerified Source: pewresearch.org[1] Pew Research Center documented the shift across 36 countries and more than 42,000 respondents, with fieldwork running between 8 February and 13 May 2026.
Pew Research Center said: "In most of the 36 countries surveyed, more people have a favorable view of China than of the U.S. The gap is especially large in several Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries."[2] The finding lands as Washington is engaged in active trade disputes and military controversies on multiple fronts.
A 12-point fall in one year
The United States shed 12 percentage points in median favourability in a single year, dropping from 48% in 2025 to 36% in 2026.verifiedVerified Source: pewresearch.org[1] China's eight-point gain over the same period completed the reversal, placing Beijing ahead of Washington in median global perception for the first time in the survey's current form.
China's rise was comparatively gradual, built on incremental gains across regions rather than a single dramatic swing in any one bloc. The scale of the US decline has no precedent in the survey series.
Which countries shifted and which held firm
The United States is viewed more positively than China in just six of the 36 countries surveyed, among them India, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea.verifiedVerified Source: pewresearch.org[2] Those four countries share security relationships with Washington and, in several cases, active territorial tensions with Beijing, factors that help explain their outlier positions.
Canada and Mexico, the United States' closest neighbours and largest trading partners under the existing North American framework, now view China more favourably than the US.[2] That result carries particular weight given the depth of economic integration across North America and the political proximity both countries have historically shared with Washington.
Trump's foreign policy ratings drive the gap
Pew Research Center said Trump receives mostly poor marks for his handling of key foreign policy issues, including tariffs, Gaza, Iran and the Russia-Ukraine war.[3] Those specific issues map directly onto the countries that showed the steepest drops in US favourability.
On leadership confidence, Xi Jinping led Donald Trump by double digits in Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.[2] Xi's highest confidence rating among those surveyed was 37% in the United Kingdom, a figure that outpaced Trump's rating in the same country by a double-digit margin.
China has expanded diplomatic and economic engagement across Africa, the Middle East and parts of Latin America through infrastructure investment programs and zero-tariff trade initiatives. Washington's reductions in foreign aid and its escalating tariff regime have reinforced perceptions of an inward-turning superpower.
Methodology, caveats and limits
Pew Research Center conducted the survey using a mix of telephone, face-to-face and online interviews, carried out under the direction of Gallup, Langer Research Associates and Social Research Centre.[4] The 36-country sample covers much of Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Americas and the Middle East, though it excludes Russia, several Gulf states and most of sub-Saharan Africa.
Favourability polling captures sentiment at a point in time and does not measure trade flows, alliance commitments or strategic alignment, all of which can diverge sharply from public opinion. A single poll, even one of this scale, cannot establish a durable trend without replication across subsequent waves.
Fieldwork ran between 8 February and 13 May 2026, spanning a period of active tariff escalation by the Trump administration. The sample may overweight short-term reactions to specific policy events rather than settled long-term attitudes. Pew Research Center is scheduled to publish further breakdowns of the 42,151-person dataset in the weeks following the 15 July 2026 release.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What did the Pew Research Center find about global views of China and the US?
Which countries still view the US more favourably than China?
Why did US favourability fall so sharply?
How was the survey conducted?
Simon Wu covers breaking news and sport for Bushletter. Fast and verb-led, he writes with a news-wire cadence and no patience for PR spin.
