The following brief article from China Daily discusses a recent report noting that China is viewed increasingly positively across much of the world. This tallies with multiple recent surveys, which indicate that even in the West, China is seen more favourably than it was previously.
The article includes comments from Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez:
China’s increasingly positive image is a reflection of its concrete achievements: lifting hundreds of millions of its own people out of poverty, building productive infrastructure throughout the Global South, leading the global green energy transition, and consistently advocating for peace, multipolarity, sovereignty and win-win cooperation. Young people in particular are increasingly positive about China, particularly its orientation toward peace and its commitment to green tech. This is feeding into a ‘Chinamaxxing’ phenomenon that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
As to why Europe has a more negative view of China than the Global South does, Carlos remarks that “this reflects the political crisis of a continent caught between its inherited Atlanticist commitments and a rapidly changing world. But even there, the US now scores far worse than China – a striking measure of how unilateralism in this era has unsettled even Washington’s closest allies”.
China is viewed positively across much of the world, a recent study has said, with experts attributing it to the country’s governance achievements.
China receives net positive ratings — measured as the percentage of positive views minus negative ones — across most regions surveyed, including the Americas, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report, commissioned by a Europe-based nonprofit organization in partnership with Nira Data, published earlier in May.
Global country perceptions, part of the report, are based on responses from a sample of 46,600 people across 85 countries and regions, conducted between March 19 and April 21.
Regionally, particularly favorable perceptions of China were found in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as sub-Saharan Africa.
“China’s increasingly positive image is a reflection of its concrete achievements: lifting hundreds of millions of its own people out of poverty, building productive infrastructure throughout the Global South, leading the global green energy transition, and consistently advocating for peace, multipolarity, sovereignty and win-win cooperation,” Carlos Martinez, cofounder of the Friends of Socialist China platform, told China Daily.
“Young people in particular are increasingly positive about China, particularly its orientation toward peace and its commitment to green tech. This is feeding into a ‘Chinamaxxing’ phenomenon that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago,” Martinez added.
“Chinamaxxing” is a lifestyle trend among Gen Z in Western countries where young people are enthusiastically adopting Chinese wellness practices, aesthetics and habits into their daily lives.
The study also noted that global opinion had “flipped” by 2026, as China is now the only one of the three major powers with a net positive image, while global perceptions of the US deteriorated for a second consecutive year, and for the first time, fell below those of Russia.
Average net perceptions of the US swung from positive 27 percent in 2023 to negative 16 percent this year, a drop of 43 points, giving it the fifth-lowest score in the 2026 ranking.
China’s net perceptions stood at a positive 7 percent.
Most countries now also have a more favorable view of China than of the US, as 63 of the 83 surveyed countries and regions gave China a higher net perception score than the US.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former NATO secretary-general, was quoted by Reuters as saying that the sharp decline in the global perception of the US was “saddening but not shocking”, as US foreign policy over the past 18 months had called into question trans-Atlantic ties, imposed widespread tariffs, and threatened to invade the territory of a NATO ally.
Martinez said the US association with wars, sanctions, and regime change, which he said points to a pattern of “reckless unilateralism and aggression”, had destabilized the world and alienated even Europe.
“Inasmuch as Europe has a relatively negative view of China, this reflects the political crisis of a continent caught between its inherited Atlanticist commitments and a rapidly changing world. But even there, the US now scores far worse than China — a striking measure of how unilateralism in this era has unsettled even Washington’s closest allies,” he said.
Notably, in the country direction index, China stood out as the country with the highest level of public optimism about the direction in which the country is heading, while globally, far more people said their countries were moving in the wrong direction than in the right one.
Adrian Severin, Romania’s former deputy prime minister, told China Daily on the sidelines of the 2026 China-Europe Seminar on Human Rights in Paris on Thursday that China’s extraordinary achievements, which affect the lives of its own people, speak to the philosophy of human rights being applied there.
The report is not an isolated finding, as multiple global polls showed growing favorability toward China.
A Pew Research Center poll, released in April, revealed an upward trend in positive sentiment toward China. The share of surveyed US adults expressing a favorable view of China has nearly doubled since 2023 to reach 27 percent.
Polling firms such as Ipsos and Morning Consult have also reported a mirroring trajectory in their findings.
