Pew Survey shows that much of the world doesn’t see China as a warm and fuzzy country
China has a serious image problem when it comes to how it is viewed globally. A Pew Research Center Global Survey released late last month casts a harsh spotlight on global opinions about the People’s Republic and its treatment of other countries. The report surveyed attitudes across 16 high-income and 8 middle-income countries. The high-income countries included the US, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Japan, the UK, France, Spain, Greece, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Germany, Hungary, and Israel. The middle-income countries included Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Indonesia, and India.
Aggregating
attitudes across these two groups yields a negative view of China and its
international behavior. Just over a
quarter (28%) of those questioned across all 24 countries had favorable views
of China compared with the over two-thirds (67%) with unfavorable views. Some 57% agreed that China interferes in the
affairs of other countries vs. the 35% saying it does not. Close to three-quarters (71%) said that China
does not contribute to global peace and stability compared to the 23% who say
it does. And by a slightly higher
margin, 76 to 22%, those surveyed disagreed with the claim that China takes
into account the interests of countries like the ones they live in.
While these
numbers pretty bad, the news is not entirely grim for China. Opinions regarding the country and its
actions differ markedly between the high-income countries, where negative
feelings about the People’s Republic are very strong, and the middle income,
where opinions are more mixed and, In some cases, mildly to highly positive. The Pew Survey also reveals that in the both
high- and middle-income countries surveyed, China is seen as a highly
innovative country technologically. By
contrast, the narrative of China as a rising economic superpower poised to
overtake the US is much stronger among high-income countries than it is among
middle-income countries. In the rest of
the post, I’ll break down these findings and review their implications for
China.
In all but
four of the high-income countries, the share of those surveyed with highly negative
views on China ranges from 66 to 87% in the Pew Survey. This group includes two countries that have
recently greatly benefited from close economic ties with China, Germany and
Australia, where highly unfavorable views of China are held by 77 and 87% of
Germans and Australians, respectively. The
four high-income countries with less negative views about China are Italy
(58%), Israel (50%), Hungary (52%), and Greece (51%). Hungary and Italy are two of the three countries
where unfavorable views about China have declined; the other is South Korea,
where the share of people with highly negative views vis-à-vis their Chinese
neighbor dipped slightly from 80% in 2022 to 77% in 2023.
Among the
middle-income countries in the Pew Survey, India is the only one where China is
viewed unfavorably. Some 67% of Indians
surveyed had highly unfavorable views of China, reflecting the negative impact
of border clashes on Sino-Indian relations.
In the other middle-income countries, highly unfavorable views of China
are held by less than half of the population.
In Brazil and South Africa, that share ranges from 40-48%, in Mexico and
Argentina, between 34-35%, and in Kenya, Nigeria, and Indonesia, from
15-25%. China’s more favorable rating
among the last three countries surely reflects the large amount of Chinese
investment directed at them as part of the ambitious 1 Belt, 1 Road global
infrastructure development scheme. Save
for Brazil and India, the share of those surveyed with a favorable view of
China exceeded those with unfavorable views of it. However, these favorable shares were under
50% save for Kenya (72%), Nigeria (80%), and Mexico (57%).
Pew also
surveyed opinions regarding Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Interestingly, Xi is viewed more negatively
than China as a country across just about all of the cases in the Pew
study. In all but three high-income
countries, an overwhelming majority, over 70%, of those surveyed, expressed no
or little confidence in Xi’s leadership.
The three outliers are Italy (67%), Hungary (59%), and Greece
(54%). Xi is also not well liked in the
middle-income countries. Nigeria, Kenya,
and South Africa are the only countries where the share of those expressing
some to high confidence in his leadership exceed the share of those with no to
little confidence in it. Out of those
three, Kenya and Nigeria were the only ones where the share of those with
positive views about Xi exceeded 50% (62% for Nigeria, 81% for Nigeria). These findings underscore how Xi, in marked
contrast to Deng Xiaoping, has been a real drag on China’s attempt to exert
“soft power” globally. With Xi likely to
remain in power for years to come, this does not auger well for future Chinese
efforts in this area.
There is yet
more bad news for China in the Pew Survey regarding its international behavior. When asked if China’s foreign policy accounts
for their country’s interests, the share of those surveyed in all but two high-income
countries saying “no” ranged from 73 to 93% (in most countries in this group the
share saying “no” exceeded 80%). The two
outliers here are Poland (64%) and Hungary (68%). Among middle-income countries, over half of
those surveyed answered “yes” to the question in Indonesia (53%), South Africa
(56%), Kenya (64%), and Nigeria (71%).
As was the case in India, a majority of those surveyed in Mexico (53%),
Argentina (61%), and Brazil (50%) did not agree that China accounts for the
interests of their countries when conducting its foreign policy. These figures for Mexico, Brazil, and
Argentina are striking, given their relatively high favorability ratings for
China as a country.
An identical
pattern prevails regarding views on whether China contributes to international
peace and stability. Once again, the
answer from the overwhelmingly majority of those surveyed in high-income
countries to the question is a resounding “no.”
And once again, a plurality or majority answer yes to this question in
the four middle-income countries of Indonesia (54%), South Africa (47%), Kenya
(51%), and Nigeria (68%).
Can China
reverse its current negative image in much of the world? I would say probably not, at least as long
the people currently running the country stay in charge. Unlike his illustrious predecessor Deng
Xiaoping, who shrewdly sought to lower China’s international profile, Xi has
embarked on a more aggressive and expensive foreign policy. That shift, combined with the “wolf warrior”
diplomacy accompanying it, has soured global public opinion about China. Until that changes, enhancing China’s worldwide
image and soft power will be an uphill struggle.
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