More people around the world now favour China over the US, Pew study suggests

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. More people around the world now favour China over the US, Pew study suggestsImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Many people say China interferes less than the US in other countries, the survey indicatesByTessa WongAsia Digital Reporter, Reporting fromSingaporePublished43 minutes agoChina is now viewed more positively than the US in many countries around the world, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. It is the first time the organisation has recorded such results. The findings from the non-partisan, US-based think tank indicate that favourable views of China have reached record highs in many countries, while perceptions of the United States have worsened.

In general, respondents expressed low confidence in both US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, though Xi scored higher than Trump. While the US was still seen to respect personal freedoms more than China, China was seen to interfere in other countries' affairs less than the US. Pew polled more than 42,000 people in 36 countries between February and May.

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Respondents were asked if they had a very favourable, somewhat favourable, somewhat unfavourable, or very unfavourable opinion of each superpower. The research centre found that in 25 of the 36 countries, there were more people who had favourable views of China than of the US. It marks the first time the centre, which has been tracking global sentiments towards the superpowers since 2002, has seen such a result in so many countries, according to Jonathan Schulman, one of the study's researchers.

Pew has seen previous dips in positive views of the US - in 2008, at the end of George Bush's administration, and in 2017, at the start of Trump's first term. Even then, however, favourable views of China tended to be on par or slightly lower, Schulman told the . Spain, Indonesia, Italy, Greece and Canada were among the countries that saw the biggest swings towards China.

Only six countries in this year's survey still favour the US more, most of which are staunch US allies: Poland, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Japan and Israel. Separately, the centre found that the median favourable opinion of the US across 20 countries had dropped steadily in recent years while the median favourable opinion of China had been rising. Researchers also found that favourable views of China had increased in more than a third of the countries surveyed in recent years, based on an expanded dataset including the US.

And positive views of China reached record highs in some places surveyed this year, including Italy, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Turkey. Researchers found that in general, middle-income countries tended to have positive views of China while wealthier countries tended to have more negative views. One exception to this pattern was Singapore, which had the highest GDP per capita of the countries surveyed and a high level of positivity towards China.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.