Ahead of a meeting scheduled next week between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, a U.S. think tank said data it has collected from two dozen countries shows the U.S. president is winning the battle for public opinion. .
The Pew Research Center said it surveyed 30,861 adults in 24 countries between February 20 and May 22. The topic of the survey is attitudes toward the world’s two largest economic powers and their leadership.
“People in 23 countries tend to have more positive opinions of US President Joe Biden than of Chinese President Xi Jinping,” said the report, released Monday. “An average of 54% trust that Biden is doing the right thing in international affairs, compared to 19% who say the same about Xi.”
Pew said it did not conduct a survey in the United States on people’s confidence in Biden’s handling of global affairs. Center staff also said they could no longer conduct independent surveys in China.
The study reflects the situation in the following countries: United States, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria , Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain and Sweden.
Pew notes that the study showed that China is viewed unfavorably in North America, Europe and Asia, and more favorably in Africa and Latin America.
The gap in favor of Biden tended to be quite large in high-income countries. However, even in most middle-income countries, respondents expressed more confidence in Biden than Xi.
The exceptions are Indonesia and Hungary. In these countries, Biden and Xi received almost identical scores.
“This year, overall views of the United States are much more positive than views of China in most places surveyed,” the report says.
“On average, 59% of respondents have a positive opinion of the United States, compared to 28% who say the same of China,” the document explains.
Pew said nearly two decades of country surveys have changed, but that the United States’ performance under Biden rose sharply in many countries surveyed, while China’s performance was at its lowest point.
The prevailing view in most countries was that both the United States and China were inclined to interfere in the affairs of other countries; However, the United States is almost always characterized this way, even though it “receives higher marks than China for its contribution to global peace and stability,” the study notes.
“Overall, attitudes toward the United States are much more positive than attitudes toward China,” the report emphasizes.
Biden and Xi are expected to meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco next week, although China has not yet confirmed this and a senior Biden administration official said last week that a number of details remained to be agreed upon. important.
