A recent Pew Research Center poll reveals a significant shift in global attitudes, with China and its leader Xi Jinping now viewed more favorably than the United States and former US President Donald Trump in many countries.

The survey, conducted from February to May 2026—a period marked by the United States and Israel launching a war against Iran—found that in 25 out of 36 countries and territories, including Canada and Mexico, more people hold favorable views of China than the US. Only six countries still see the US more positively than China.

Moreover, 22 of the 36 surveyed nations expressed more favorable opinions of Xi Jinping compared to Donald Trump, encompassing major European powers such as France, Germany, and the UK.

Laura Silver, associate director of Pew's Global Attitudes Research and a study researcher, noted this is the first time in roughly 20 years of tracking global opinions that China has surpassed the US in favorability. She explained that while views of Beijing and Washington have occasionally been similar in the past, China has not been significantly more favored until now.

The shift follows the COVID-19 pandemic becoming less of a global concern and a general souring of views toward the US. Factors contributing to the US's declining approval include Trump's demands to control Greenland, the American military raid that captured Venezuela's then-leader Nicolás Maduro, and the US handling of the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

Silver added that the narrowing gap is largely due to people in nearly every surveyed country becoming less likely to believe the US government respects personal freedoms since 2021, when Pew last posed this question.

Sources