In 25 of 36 countries and territories surveyed, more people now hold favorable views of China than of the United States, according to a Pew Research Center poll published July 15, 2026. This is the first time in roughly two decades of Pew tracking that China has surpassed the U.S. on this measure. The survey, conducted from February 8 to May 13, 2026, interviewed 42,151 people across 36 countries and territories spanning Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Pew Research Center

Only six countries — Poland, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Japan, and Israel — still register more favorable views of the U.S. than of China. The remainder of the 36 surveyed locales tilt toward Beijing. The 36 countries and territories covered include 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.

The leadership dimension reinforces the broader pattern. In 22 of the 36 surveyed locales, respondents view Chinese leader Xi Jinping more favorably than U.S. President Donald Trump. Countries where Xi outpolls Trump include Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, and the U.K. — all traditional U.S. partners or allies. Pew Research Center

Canada illustrates the magnitude and velocity of the shift. Favorable views of the U.S. among Canadians fell from 57% in 2023 to 33% in 2026, while favorable views of China rose from 14% to 44% over the same period. That is a 30-point drop in U.S. standing and a 30-point gain in China's, compressed into three years. The Pew report also compares the two powers on respect for personal freedoms and approaches to foreign policy, though the toplines on overall favorability are the survey's most striking finding. Pew Research Center

The survey's fieldwork window deserves attention. Interviews ran from February 8 through May 13, 2026. Chinese President Xi Jinping met U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing on May 14, 2026 — one day after the polling closed. The survey therefore does not capture any potential rally effect or shift in sentiment from that summit. Laura Silver, associate director of Pew's Global Attitudes Research and a researcher on the study, contributed to the analysis published alongside the data. The Guardian

The Chinese embassy in Washington responded to the poll, stating that it "demonstrates that China's governance achievements and development progress are widely recognised." The Guardian

Pew published the findings as a suite of products. The main report, titled "People in Many Countries Now View China More Positively Than the U.S.," was accompanied by a companion piece, "Views of China and Xi Are Improving Globally," and a regional breakdown, "How Do Views of the U.S. and China Compare in Latin America?" The full methodology and questionnaires are available in a downloadable PDF on pewresearch.org, citing the Spring 2026 Global Attitudes Survey. Pew Research Center

The broader context here matters for anyone who follows how countries win influence abroad. Soft power is the ability of a country to win over foreign publics through appeal and persuasion rather than military force — think of it as a country's reputation, the way a brand earns trust over time. Pew has been measuring global attitudes toward the U.S. and China since the mid-2000s, and through multiple administrations in both countries, the U.S. consistently held a favorability edge, often a wide one. That edge has now inverted. The countries where China leads are not confined to developing nations or to states already aligned with Beijing; they include NATO members (Canada, Germany, France, the U.K., Hungary, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Turkey), major democracies outside NATO (Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Indonesia), and middle powers across multiple regions.

The six holdouts where the U.S. retains an edge share a common attribute: each faces direct, pressing security concerns where U.S. military or strategic commitments remain central to national policy planning. Poland borders Russia and has been a leading European security spender. The Philippines and South Korea operate under U.S. treaty alliances in the Indo-Pacific. Japan and India manage direct territorial or border frictions with China. Israel's security relationship with Washington is structural. The pattern suggests that security dependency, rather than cultural affinity or economic ties, may be the variable most resistant to the broader erosion in U.S. standing.

One caveat worth weighing: favorability ratings tell us about public mood, not about what governments will actually do. Governments routinely make strategic choices that diverge from their publics' preferences. The survey captures attitudes; it does not measure whether those attitudes are translating into concrete policy shifts, trade realignments, or institutional reconfigurations. What it does establish is that the soft-power gap the U.S. long took for granted has narrowed to the point of reversal — and that this reversal is broad-based, not concentrated in any single region or bloc.