Global Public Opinion on China | Asia Society

Global Public Opinion on China

Global Public Opinion on China

 

Citizens around the world are increasingly conscious of China’s expanding economic, political, social, and environmental footprints. These public perceptions toward China increasingly bear on important policy choices on issues spanning from domestic governance and environmental policy to diplomacy and how best to respond to geostrategic competition. Global Public Opinion on China (GPOC) aggregates worldwide polling to track and visualize this emerging factor shaping the global order.

Colors on the map depict China’s approval rating — the percentage of positive responses minus negative responses — in that country's most recent survey. Switch to Table view to explore trends at the country, regional, and global levels.

The Global Average represents the percentage of positive and negative responses in each year, weighted according to each country's population.

Analysis Methodology About

 

 

Key Takeaways

  1. Global public opinion on China is increasingly coming into focus. The number of surveys measuring citizens’ sentiments toward China has exploded since 2000. The GPOC project’s dataset of nearly 2,500 survey results includes just over 500 from the 2000-2009 period, a figure that doubles to 1,077 in the 2010s, and already more than 850 in the first five years of the 2020s. As China’s global presence expands, there is an unprecedented level of data on citizens’ attitudes toward China. 
  2. The impact of COVID-19 has been severe, including in parts of the Global South. The decline in China’s image in the industrialized West is well-documented, but GPOC’s database shows a more than ten-point drop on average in China’s net favorability in the Global South from 2019 to 2020. China’s image took a particular hit in Latin America and South Asia; however, it stayed relatively unaffected in the Middle East and Africa and may even have improved in Southeast Asia.
  3. China is not simply making inroads in Africa by cultivating elites — it is genuinely popular. Positive views of China among citizens in sub-Saharan Africa have outweighed negative views by a factor of about 3:1 across nearly 300 surveys in the region. Yet, China’s image is by no means uniformly positive across the Global South, with major developing countries such as India, Turkey, and Iran leaning surprisingly negative.

 

Sources

The GPOC project draws together survey results from the following sources:

Afrobarometer

Americas Barometer

Arab Barometer

AsiaBarometer

  • Inoguchi, Takashi. AsiaBarometer, 2003-2008. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-03-03. https://doi.org/10.3886/E163481V2 
  • Inoguchi, Takashi and Shigeto Sonoda, AsiaBarometer Integrated Dataset. AsiaBarometer Project (http://www.asiabarometer.org/). AsiaBarometer is a registered trademark of Professor Takashi Inoguchi, President of University of Niigata Prefecture, Japan, Director of the AsiaBarometer Project. 

Asian Barometer

  • Second Wave: Data analyzed in this project were collected by the Asian Barometer Project (2005-2008), which was co-directed by Professors Fu Hu and Yun-han Chu and received major funding support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. The Asian Barometer Project Office (www.asianbarometer.org) is solely responsible for the data distribution. The GPOC project team appreciate the assistance in providing data by the institutes and individuals aforementioned. The views expressed herein are the author's(s') own. 
  • Third Wave: Data analyzed in this project were collected by the Asian Barometer Project (2010-2012), which was co-directed by Professors Fu Hu and Yun-han Chu and received major funding support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. The Asian Barometer Project Office (www.asianbarometer.org) is solely responsible for the data distribution. The GPOC project team appreciate the assistance in providing data by the institutes and individuals aforementioned. The views expressed herein are the author's(s') own. 
  • Fourth Wave: Data analyzed in this project were collected by the Asian Barometer Project (2013-2016), which was co-directed by Professors Fu Hu and Yun-han Chu and received major funding support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. The Asian Barometer Project Office (www.asianbarometer.org) is solely responsible for the data distribution. The GPOC project team appreciate the assistance in providing data by the institutes and individuals aforementioned. The views expressed herein are the author's(s') own. 
  • Fifth Wave: Data analyzed in this project were collected by the Asian Barometer Project (2018-2021), which was co-directed by Professors Yun-han Chu and received major funding support from National Science and Technology Council, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. The Asian Barometer Project Office (www.asianbarometer.org) is solely responsible for the data distribution. The GPOC project team appreciate the assistance in providing data by the institutes and individuals aforementioned. The views expressed herein are the author's(s') own. 
  • Sixth Wave: Data analyzed in this project were collected by the Asian Barometer Project (2020-), which was co-directed by Professors Yun-han Chu, Prof Min-hua Huang and received major funding support from National Science and Technology Council, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. The Asian Barometer Project Office (www.asianbarometer.org) is solely responsible for the data distribution. The GPOC project team appreciate the assistance in providing data by the institutes and individuals aforementioned. The views expressed herein are the author's(s') own. 

Asian Research Network

Australian National University

Baltic Surveys

BBC Globescan

Central Asia Barometer

Centre for Eastern Studies

Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas

Chatham House

China House Kenya

D3 Systems

Eurobarometer

Gallup

Genron NPO

Ilisimatusarfik

International Republican Institute

IPSOS

Iranpoll

Ireland Thinks

Japan's Cabinet Office

Democracy Perception Index

Latinobarómetro

Levada Center

Madrid-Morales & Wasserman 2022

National Democratic Institute (NDI)

NORC Public Affairs

Pew Research Center

Note: Pew Research Center bears no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations of the data presented here. The opinions expressed herein, including any implications for policy, are those of the author and not of Pew Research Center.

Poliarquía-Wilson Centre Survey

Public Opinion Foundation (FOM)

  • FOMnibus, Public Opinion Foundation, Russia and China: How People Assess Relations between Russia and China, 2004, https://fom.ru/Mir/15026 

Razumkov Center

Redfield & Wilton

SHARQ

Sinophone Borderlands

Talap

Transatlantic Trends

Tupou Tertiary Institute

Washington Institute

World Public Opinion

YouGov

Zogby Research Services

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