ByIkenna Emewu, Editor-in-Chief of Africa China Economy Magazine, Nigeria

Source:  https://africachinapresscentre.org/global-views-on-china-tops-that-of-the-us-says-pew-research/

Global views of China have turned more positive across 20 of 36 countries sampled, according to the Pew Research Centre findings in its May 2026 global reviews.

The review research also indicated that views of the U.S. within the period in focus turned out more negative.

The report published few days ago noted that “China being assessed more positively than the U.S. is a relatively recent shift in most countries surveyed. This reversal in favorability is often driven by shifting views of both superpowers: improving views of China coupled with worsening views of the U.S.

Nigeria is one of the 36 countries samples and among the four in Africa. The other three in Africa in the review research include Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.

Nigeria also falls within the band of countries that have more positive views about China than the US, with 78% of those polled taking sides with China. The same positive outcome applies to the other African countries.

For example, a majority of Canadians (57%) had a positive view of the US in 2023 while 14% viewed China positively. In 2025, Canadians were equally favourable towards the U.S. and China. Now, more Canadians have a favorable view of China (44%) than the U.S. (33%)”

A statement that accompanied the release of the results of the research indicated that “Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It does not take policy positions.

The Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, computational social science research and other data-driven research. It studies politics and policy; news habits and media; the internet and technology; religion; race and ethnicity; international affairs; social, demographic and economic trends; science; research methodology and data science; and immigration and migration.

This Pew Research Center report looks at how views of the U.S. and China compare around the world, including ratings of their presidents, their respect for personal freedoms, and their approaches to foreign policy.

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. This project brings together two topics we regularly study: international views of the U.S. and international views of China.

We surveyed 42,151 people across 36 countries: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the U.K., and the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Interviews were conducted from February 8 to May 13, 2026.”

Xi and Trump

On public global views of the leaders of the two countries, Pew Research found that “confidence in both Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping is generally low. But people in many of the 36 countries surveyed view Xi more favorably. In European countries, for example, neither leader gets a majority-positive rating, but views of Xi tend to be more favorable than views of Trump. In Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, Xi leads Trump by double digits, though his highest favorability rating is just 37%, from the U.K.

During the first two years of Trump’s second rating, of the U.S. president worsened significantly. While many people still lack confidence in Xi, positive views of him have become more widespread, and more overall now say they have confidence in Xi than in Trump.

Citizens’ freedom

One area where the U.S. still gets higher ratings than China has to do with personal freedoms:

More say the U.S. government respects the personal freedoms of its people than say the same of the Chinese government. More people say that the US respects the freedom of its citizens more than China does, still, the gap has been narrowing, and this, according to the review is driven by large drops in the shares voting positively about the U.S.

While Israel rates the US as respecting the freedom of its citizens more than China, countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the West Bank and East Jerusalem, say China respects, personal freedoms than the US.

For people in the Latin America, around the world, Pew Review “also examined how people in six Latin American countries see their foreign policy roles. People in these nations previously tended to see the U.S. as a more reliable partner than China, but several publics are now split.

Foreign policy

People in 17 middle-income countries raise more concerns about the United States’ foreign policy than China’s. A median of 75% say that the U.S. interferes in the affairs of other countries a great deal or a fair amount, while 45% say the same of China. In nearly every country surveyed, more people see the U.S. as an interferer than China.

Similarly, people in many of these middle-income countries see China as a more reliable partner than the U.S. and are more likely to say China contributes to peace and stability around the world. In South Africa, for example, 72% say China is a reliable partner to their country, while 46% say the same of the U.S. And South Africans are much more likely to say China (64%) accounts for the interests of countries like their own in making international policy decisions than they are to say.

Latin America

In four of the six Latin American countries surveyed – Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Peru – people now view China more favorably than the U.S. In Brazil and Colombia, views of the two countries are about even. In several of these countries, views of the U.S. and China also differ by age. Younger adults in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru are more likely than older adults to view both superpowers positively. In Mexico, for example, 52% of people ages 18 and 34 view the U.S. positively, and 70% view China positively. In Brazil, around six-in-ten people under 35 have a positive view of both countries, compared with around four-in-ten of those ages 50 and older.