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There has been a shocking turn in geopolitics and the war for supremacy between global superpowers which has surprised policy makers all over the world. The results of a comprehensive global survey conducted by the prestigious global survey agency ‘Pew Research Center’ in the beginning of the year 2026 have come to light. The strategic data of this global survey is a clear testimony that in many major countries around the world, China’s image has emerged as more positive and stronger than America. The biggest swing in international affairs was seen when it came to trust in global leadership and decisions, where citizens of most countries in the world expressed more trust in Chinese President Xi Jinping than in US President Donald Trump.
Conversation with more than 42 thousand people in 36 countries: China’s image is better than America in 25 countries
For this comprehensive research, Pew Research Center directly interacted with 42,151 people living in 36 important countries of the world between February 8 and May 13, 2026. This is the first time in the history of this organization, which has been continuously conducting such global surveys since 2002, that citizens of 25 out of 36 countries have stated that their opinion towards China is more positive and better than that of America. According to data analysts, there has been an unprecedented improvement in China’s soft power and strategic image on the global stage, while on the contrary, America’s global acceptance graph has declined drastically.
Changing global equations: America’s neighboring countries are also in favor of China, only 6 countries are left with superpowers.
In this survey, America has suffered the biggest blow from its neighboring countries. The largest and most positive improvements in public sentiment towards China have been seen in countries such as Canada, Mexico, Spain, Indonesia, Italy and Greece. Now the situation is that even the countries bordering America like Canada and Mexico are liking China more than America. In the entire survey, there are only 6 countries left which still consider America better and supreme than China on the global stage. These countries include India, Poland, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan and Israel, which have long been Washington’s strategic and military allies. In contrast, China’s popularity in Asia-Pacific and developing countries has reached record levels, with Pakistan (83%), Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey leading the way.
Trump vs Xi Jinping: Who is ahead in taking decisions in world affairs?
When global citizens were asked in the survey who they had more confidence in between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in taking the right steps and making better decisions in international affairs, the individual scores of both the leaders were below 50 percent, which shows that the world is skeptical about the heads of both the superpowers. Despite this, in personal comparison Xi Jinping wins. People of 22 countries of the world (which include France, Germany, Britain, Canada and Mexico) expressed more confidence in Xi Jinping’s decision-making ability than Trump. Trump got the highest support of 68% in the Philippines, while his support fell to just 4% in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Researchers say that worldwide opinion about Trump is extremely extreme (either very good or very bad), while opinion about Xi Jinping is not as aggressive.
Issue of personal freedom and internal interference: 75% people agreed that America interferes excessively.
America has always been ahead of China in terms of respecting individual liberty and human rights on the global stage and this trend has continued in Pew’s survey for the last 10 years. But since 2021, this difference has also reduced very rapidly. In developed countries like Sweden, Canada, France, Germany and Italy, less than 25 percent now believe that the American government respects freedom. In contrast, in countries like Mexico, 35% of people believe that China respects freedom, while for the US the figure is only 20%. At the same time, even today the world considers America to be the biggest culprit in matters of interference in the internal affairs of other countries; 75% of the respondents said that America interferes too much in other countries, whereas only 45% people have this opinion for China. Additionally, the famous ‘Gallup Survey’ has also revealed similar results, according to which the gap between China and the US in global leadership ratings has reached its lowest level in the last 20 years, which is a clear indication of the changing equations as a global superpower.