Pew Research: Country's favor US or China?

Basically, most folks around the Globe don't trust China, although Vlad is starting to thaw haha. Also, Iran is cozying up to them (since they buy all its oil).

On the other hand, most global citizens feel more comfortable with Biden than Xi, which is perhaps understandable since the Chinese Leader is fricken nuts. Then again, I'd prefer to have a six-panel door in the Oval Office than Biden. No, I don't mean at the entry, I mean behind the desk.

How views of the U.S., China and their leaders have changed over time

BY LAURA SILVER, CHRISTINE HUANG, LAURA CLANCY, NAM LAM, JOHN CARLO MANDAPAT, SHANNON GREENWOOD AND CHRIS BARONAVSKI, PEW RESEARCH

People in 23 countries tend to see U.S. President Joe Biden more positively than Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in spring 2023. A median of 54% have confidence in Biden to do the right thing regarding world affairs, compared with 19% who say the same of Xi.

Difference in shares who say they have confidence in the U.S. and Chinese presidents to do the right thing regarding world affairs

Particularly in high-income countries, the gap in these views can be quite large. In Poland, for example, people are 75 percentage points more likely to rate Biden positively than Xi. In Germany, Japan and Sweden, the gap is at least 50 points. Views of the two leaders are more comparable to one another in middle-income countries, but even in most of these places, more have confidence in Biden than Xi. Indonesia and Hungary are two notable exceptions where the leaders receive nearly identical marks.

Related: Comparing Views of the U.S. and China in 24 Countries

These gaps in views of the American and Chinese leaders reflect both souring attitudes toward Xi in high-income countries and greater confidence in Biden – particularly compared with his predecessor, Donald Trump. Indeed, for much of his presidency, Trump received lower marks than Xi in many places surveyed.

This also happened at the end of the Bush era in 2007, when limited confidence in then-President George W. Bush and relatively positive ratings for China’s then-President Hu Jintao led to more positive ratings for Hu than Bush in most places.

Favorability of the U.S. and China

This year, overall views of the United States are much more positive than views of China in most places surveyed. A median of 59% offer positive evaluations of the U.S., compared with a median of 28% who say the same of China. But this has not always been the case in our nearly two decades of favorability polling, and views of the countries have fluctuated alongside views of their leaders.

Difference in shares who say they have favorable views of the U.S. and China

Note: Countries are plotted by the difference in evaluations of the U.S. and China.

Source: Global Attitudes Survey.

Toward the end of the Bush era in 2007, with lower ratings for the U.S. and relatively positive views of China, many countries surveyed had gaps around 10 points or smaller in their views of the two superpowers. In some countries, such as France and Argentina, people even had slightly more positive views of China than the U.S.

During the Obama era, views of the U.S. turned substantially more positive in most countries surveyed, while views of China changed little or became more negative. The changes led to a larger gap in views of the two countries, with people in most places surveyed expressing a more favorable view of the U.S. than of China by 2016.

With Trump’s presidency, things shifted dramatically. Favorable views of the U.S. nose-dived in most places surveyed in 2017, and the two countries were, once again, seen in a relatively equal light in many places. In some others, people again saw China slightly more favorably. But, by 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, favorable views of both China and the U.S. had fallen to near historic lows in most places surveyed. Still, the U.S. received a slightly more positive assessment than China in many countries, though both were generally seen quite negatively.

Since the beginning of Biden’s presidency, views of the U.S. have rebounded dramatically in many of the countries surveyed, while views of China remain among their most negative, leading to some of the largest gaps in these views we have seen in our polling.