For the first time in the Pew Research Center’s nearly 20-year history of surveys, Canadian and Mexican public opinion of China is more positive than that of its neighbor, the United States, according to a recent survey released on the 27th by the Pew Research Center, a well-known U.S. polling agency. “Recent surveys show that global and multinational public opinion of China continues to rise, indicating that China’s stable role in international affairs and its image of pragmatic cooperation are being increasingly recognized,” Wang Yimao, a professor at the School of International Relations at the People’s University of China, said in an interview with the Global Times on the 28th.
According to this survey conducted by Pew this spring, the Canadian public‘s perception of China is for the first time significantly better than its perception of the United States. The Mexican public, on the other hand, has already shown more positive attitudes toward China than toward the United States in the agency‘s previous several surveys. Despite differences in perceptions between different age groups, young and older people in Canada and Mexico are generally more positive about China. Among them, Mexican adults under the age of 35 have a more positive perception of China than those aged 50 and above, which is also consistent with the situation in many other countries.
The survey showed that 58 percent of Mexican respondents saw China as a reliable partner, compared to 34 percent who saw the United States as a reliable partner. The report said: “Among the six Latin American countries we surveyed this year, this is the biggest gap on this issue.” At the same time, the proportion of Mexicans who think China helps maintain global stability is much higher than the proportion who share the same view about the United States.
Surveys also show that citizens in Canada and Mexico now have a more negative view of U.S. domestic and foreign policy. In 2023, half of Mexican adults believed that the United States contributed to world peace and stability. Today, this proportion has fallen to 28 percent. Moreover, 73 percent of Mexican respondents believe that the United States interferes with their domestic affairs, far higher than the proportion who believe that China interferes with their domestic affairs.
Wang Yima told a reporter from the Global Times that foreign citizens‘ increasingly positive evaluations of China stem from the fundamental reason that China has done the right thing. Take the field of artificial intelligence as an example. China emphasizes open-source cooperation, while the United States promotes closed-source monopoly; the United States adheres to “national priorities”, while China emphasizes mutual benefit. The two countries form a sharp contrast in strategic choices. Currently, the world urgently needs new public products, inclusive creativity, and cooperation platforms. China accommodates the development trends of the era and the common expectations of countries, providing these precious public products to the international community.
In the middle of this month, Pew published an annual survey of 36 countries and regions. The survey showed that in 27 of these 36 countries and regions, people‘s favorability towards China exceeded their favorability towards the United States, especially in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.