A brand new survey has discovered that since Joe Biden got here to energy, constructive views of america have rebounded throughout 17 superior economies in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Most proceed to see China in an unfavourable gentle.
“Confidence within the US president has shot up precipitously since Joe Biden took workplace, whereas confidence in President Xi Jinping stays unchanged and close to historic lows,” the survey, performed by the US-based Pew analysis centre, discovered. The survey was performed between 1 February and 26 Could this 12 months throughout 17 superior economies as part of Pew’s 2021 World Attitudes survey wave. There have been 18,850 respondents.
Final 12 months the survey discovered that damaging views of each the US and China had reached historic highs in lots of international locations.
The professional-America opinion is the best in South Korea, the place 77% have constructive views of the nation, whereas round two-thirds or extra within the US, Italy, Japan, France and the UK say the identical. In each place besides New Zealand, round half or extra had a beneficial opinion of the US.
Solely two international locations – Greece and Singapore – have a extra constructive view of China in contrast with final 12 months. Three-quarters or extra in Japan (88%), Sweden (80%), Australia (78%), South Korea (77%) and the US (76%) have damaging views of China.
“In lots of locations, these unfavourable views are at or close to historic highs, although they’re largely unchanged since final 12 months,” the authors wrote.
The massive majority of respondents additionally mentioned that China “doesn’t respect private freedoms of its folks”. In 15 of 17 publics, eight-in-10 have this impression. “This sense can also be at or almost historic highs in almost each place surveyed, having risen considerably in international locations like Italy, South Korea, Greece, Australia, Canada and the UK since 2018,” Pew discovered.
On US-China management, when the query was requested final 12 months, few respondents had confidence in both Xi or then-President Donald Trump to do the suitable factor when it got here to world affairs. It discovered that throughout a lot of western Europe, extra had confidence in Xi than Trump.
Half or extra folks in nearly each place surveyed say it’s “extra essential for his or her nation to have robust financial ties with the US than with China”. The views had been completely different in Singapore (33%) and New Zealand (45%).
However the emotions in the direction of China will not be all damaging. In relation to the dealing with of the Covid-19 pandemic, China scored greater than the US. A median of 49% respondents among the many 17 publics surveyed say that China has performed “a superb job” in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak, whereas a median of 37% regard the US’s response positively.