China surpassed the United States in global approval ratings in 2025, with a median of 36% approving of China’s leadership, compared with 31% for the U.S. China’s five-percentage-point advantage over the U.S. is the widest Gallup has recorded in China’s favor in nearly 20 years.
Breaking things people care about will do that.
and no one is surprised
China didn’t surpass the USA, the USA slunk behind China. They didn’t get better, but we got a lot worse ✨
Their score went up 4 points, and they’re almost even rated now with their disapproval rating. So yeah they are doing great PR.
or maybe people are just learning truth
no surprise, tiktok did wonders
China: thank god the bar moved soo much lower
Chinese leadership must be so confused about WTF America is doing. This is the worthy adversary they’ve been plotting against for decades, and now it’s just YOLOing everything on aimless bombing campaigns and insults/actual threats to it’s own sphere.
What they see as fortune just dropped onto their lap. Now they’re speedrunning to 2049.
They read the Art of War and so they know not to interrupt their adversary while they are making a mistake.
I’ve thought of that quote so many times recently.
Thats what you get when you vote in a nutcase as your president…twice
Edges past
China has a 5 point lead in approval, and 11 point less disapproval than USA!
I think that’s a bit more than edging past. 5% is statistically more than significant, 11 point higher disapproval for USA is catastrophic for their desire to control global affairs.
It’s also notable that USA has declined the most among allies, meaning USA basically doesn’t have any allies that feel comfortable about it anymore. All allies are reluctant allies at best, apart from Israel that decidedly is exploiting USA. The very thing Trump and Vance has been so pissed about other allies doing even though they actually didn’t, but actually contributed to US global dominance, that is now coming to an abrupt end.It’s not the world that is splitting between USA and China, but the world that is moving away from USA, and accept China more.
Not particularly fond of either of them
May I ask if you’re fond of any country? If so, how do they compare to China?
I wouldn’t say fond of, but I prefer the socialist aspects of some of the Nordic countries.
You dont have to be fond of them
I know, they are both trying to expand their influence across the world, its a damn shame
Same here, but the preference used to be towards USA, that is no longer the case, because we can’t trust USA anymore. China is far from perfect, but at least they are somewhat trustworthy, and have declared that they respect international law, which USA has abandoned completely. Threatening wars against several allies, started an illegal war against Iran and committed several war crimes, and blocked Cuba from getting essential energy supplies to maintain their society, which is causing even hospitals to lack power.
The list of atrocities for the past year by USA is long, and the American system and population have failed completely in preventing these things from happening. In that light China seems like the clearly lesser evil to most of the rest of the world.and have declared that they respect international law
Because it’s advantageous to do so currently. Let’s not willfully ignore their illegal fishing fleets that have been operating for decades, among other things (like the whole plastic recycling debacle).
They do not care about international law. They care about making you think they do.
The real problem is also that China will probably become even more powerful than USA, and being so powerful feeds arrogance.
I’m just hoping China will see how arrogance is now destroying USA’s global dominance because they are alienating their allies.I am not aware of the fishing and plastic things you mention, but we’ve had lots of fishing issues here in Europe too. Even between countries that are fiends.
The difference between friends and fiends is an “r”. Especially on the international stage.
True.
Well, they’ve been illegally fishing from internationally protected zones for decades so there’s that. The U.S. also had to cancel all of its contracts with China to recycle plastic because they either dumped it in the ocean or subcontracted with other Asian countries who dumped it in the ocean. You can determine whether or not that actually violates international law if you want, I would assume it does not. You can also be the judge on whether or not that should be against international law, if it is not. Plenty to take into consideration there, like how recycling plastic just produces more microplastic.
I’m just hoping China will see how arrogance is now destroying USA’s global dominance because they are alienating their allies.
China, the country not the place, is made of human beings. I don’t have much hope that they will escape that trap.
USA: Funding war and genocide China: Illegal fishing
Liberal: Those two are same damnit
There are some important, but not surprising takeaways from this article.
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World approval ratings for the US are dependent on political party. That is, they are much higher when democrats are in power.
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The world view on China has also primarily decreased over the past 20 years, however with Trump, the U.S. was able to win the race to the bottom.
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You will not be surprised by the countries who have higher approval ratings for the U.S. since Trump’s second term. China doesn’t have any data, but I’m certain they too are very happy Trump got re-elected. A destabilized US is a happy Russia and China.
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(Anakin Padme meme) It’s because China has improved so much lately, r-r-right?!?
I mean, partially yes
People know the U.S. better than almost any other country. The U.S. is very loud while China is rather quiet. And that‘s not from a lack of trying from China‘s side. It makes sense people feel stronger about someone so loud. Someone who had influenced the world so much with pop culture and politics.
Personally I still prefer the U.S. over China but that‘s a very low bar. As a European I want to be more independent from both.
Personally I still prefer the U.S. over China
“Personally I still prefer the warring state funding genocide in Palestine and threatening me with tariffs and destroying the world economy with an oil war every 10 years and maintaining the fossile fuel lobby, over the country manufacturing 95% of the world’s photovoltaic modules, supplying me with affordable consumer goods, with the latest nuclear reactor technology, and which hasn’t engaged in one war in over half a century”
Please, reconsider whether your views of China are rational or stem from Hollywood propaganda.
Wonder why you prefer US still
Luckily in EU we all want independence from USA now, and we are working together to achieve it, and we even have allies outside EU, who are eager to cooperate with on the same thing. Canada and Japan have both joined the EU SAFE program, and Starmer of UK has pledged tighter cooperation with EU on security too.
I admit I’m beginning to tend more towards China, because they are way more trustworthy and respect national sovereignty more.
But China does have some pretty serious issues too. But at least China has been moving in the right direction for most of the past ½ century, while USA has been slipping regularly since Carter lost to Reagan, and Reagan became president in 1981, just short of half a century ago.
Even Obama who was somewhat a bright spot, had serious problems keeping within international law, with illegal intelligence even against allies, and illegal drone attacks into 3 countries, costing about 70,000 civilian lives.you wont achieve shit. You all will remain neo colony of USA
Considering China is an authoritarian regime that has no issue with “reeducating” and “disappearing” millions of its own citizens and is bullying its near neighbours making claims over their land and is threatening (with actions) to forcibly reintegrate Taiwan, to be more popular globally than America is no mean feat.
Same way people are supporting Iran over them, even though they are objectively terrible from a moral and ethical standpoint. The world has quickly disregarded the fact they only a couple of months ago they noisily and publicly executed 10s of thousands of protesters.
America is now more unpopular than them. Thats how deep they have sunk
Multiple lies in your comment, just straight up bullshit lies but you are westerner, the most propagandized species ever who gulps whatever the liberal media says without a second thhought so cant expect more
Hilarious
The US is literally doing all the things you’re accusing China of. The only reason it gets a pass on the massive carceral state, the largest in the world by far, is because its cultural industry has so normalized it.
The big difference is that China is a net positive when it comes to global stability and addressing climate change, whereas the US is not.
Those of us who care about things like democracy and human rights have a lot of digging to do.
No one is giving the U.S. a pass. This is a deliberate mischaracterization.
Until this regime, the U.S. had some of the best solar subsidies on the planet.
The U.S., as a surveillance state, is still in its infancy when compared to China. So it is laughable that you are using China in any comparison to the U.S., in almost the same breath.
“Carceral State” is a tanky propagandist dog whistle.
Why don’t you debate faults on their own? Because you are deliberately trying to use current bad conduct, of the U.S. to whitewash another country’s bad conduct.
“Oh hey, the U.S. is super shitty, but we have made so much solar in the past year so we’re all about global stability.”
Ignore EVERYTHING China has done though, only look at the bad that the U.S. is doing.
I’m sure you have plenty of arguments that support or claim how China has been with: Taiwan
Uygher people
Support of North Korea
Support of Russia against Ukraine
Tibet
The horde of nonsense “technological breakthroughs” that seem to come every month but never amount to anything and just disappear.
The pollution that has been produced by Chinese industry that pretends to adhere to global standards but get busted when college students use basic satellite data.
Suppression of Hong Kong
China’s state sponsored industrial espionage.
China’s disregard of human rights abroad when kidnapping Chinese dissidents from foreign countries.
(This is just me pulling the random items I can just immediately recall)?
But that is all Western propaganda I’m sure. Feel free to break out your playbook responses.
I didn’t use bad language this time for you to get my comment deleted, since suppression is one of your biggest tools.
Funny, ten minutes ago I wrote this: https://lemmy.ca/comment/22610922 literally further down the this very thread.
How can you at the same time say that “carceral state” is a tankie dogwhistle, and also say that nobody is giving the US a pass?
Easy. They are not mutually exclusive?
How many TP Link routers, were found to be compromised by China and had to be removed from U.S. infrastructure?
Why does China restrict access to the internet without massive censure?
Your link just takes me back to your parent comment.
Your entire argument is the pot calling the kettle black.
If you were just discussing the shitty things the U.S. is doing, I would be in total agreement, but you are trying to shoehorn “How great China is” into the discussion.
No matter how terrible the U.S. is and gets, it will not erase all the terrible things China has and is doing too. No matter how much you argue otherwise.
The link works for me. What can I tell you, I’m literally debating shitty Chinese policies with user “stumu415” on a different sub thread here. Search for the string “IAGS” in the comments under this post. I’m tired trying to convince you I’m not an elephant when you continuously make bad faith assumptions and miscaracterise what I’m saying.
Edit: if you’re denying the existence of mass incarceration system in the US (aka the carcéral state) you’re denying reality and absolutely giving the US a pass.
Actually this. Thank you. But unfortunately on the web you can not express anything positive or even neutral about China. Even though most have never set foot in China. If they would especially now most countries can travel visa free to China, it will change their mind. But that goes against the western propaganda.
China is an amazing country with beautiful nature, great people, amazing food, infrastructure Americans can only dream of, and millenia of history.
Plus China don’t starts illegal wars with other countries, impacting people all over the world.
To be clear, I am not denying those accusations against China. The Uighur genocide is recognized by the International Association of Genocide Scholars; one cannot cite the IAGS on Gaza and ignore it on Xinjiang. The mass surveillance is also real, the censorship around the Tienanmen massacre is silly Orwellian, and the strangulation of Hong Kong democracy is lamentable. The atrocious working conditions and the iron disciplining of labour is also all too real (I’ve had multiple discussions with Chinese people who bragged about how there are no strikes in China.)
I was only trying to be fair and balanced, because as Westerners we are too often giving ourselves a pass: 1) China is a net positive for the green transition due to solar, at a time when the US is going full fossil fascist. And 2) it is a pole of stability internationally, in ways that the trumpist US and Israel-enabling EU have not been.
Edit: typos and such
Partially agree with you but a lot of things you raised are the same in western countries. It’s also refreshing to read sensible commentary. The mass surveillance is the same in other countries including the US, but not as obvious as in China. The cameras work as a deterrent. I can leave my phone and laptop outside in the park or café and don’t need to worry about it being stolen. Censorship is a real thing all over the world especially now in the US with whitewashing of history. Even on US controlled platforms like Reddit, you get perma banned if you are critical of the Trump administration.
And I’m sure the history books in the US do not go in depth about the treatment of tge native Americans and how they were almost eradicated.
The same in Europe. In the Netherlands the history books never mention the atrocities the VOC did in regards to slave trade and colonies.
I don’t agree about the working conditions. I travel all over China and deal with different businesses. Things are definitely improving. But at least the workers have workers protections and social security and health care.
I have both lived and worked in the US and China and prefer living in China.
Let’s get the downvotes started
Things being bad or somewhat bad on the West is irrelevant in a discussion about whatever China is doing. One of the most infuriating things we Canadians say is the phrase “at least we’re not as bad as the US”. Fuck that.
If mass surveillance is unacceptable in the West, it’s also unacceptable in China. No ifs and buts. That western surveillance is primarily commercial and secondarily political, whereas is China it’s the other way around doesn’t mean any of the two is ok.
And no, censorship is not the same everywhere, that’s just false. We don’t all hide our history and of course free speech is part of the fight for that.
That’s I guess my biggest suspicion with China as well, especially when it comes to labour. In China labour issues as seen as something for the state to manage through official unions. And I don’t buy the whole-process democracy thing. It’s too cooptive, too “harmonious”. Not buying.
Removed by mod
deleted by creator
Last I checked the USA wasnt forcing (yet) god knows how many Muslims into reeducation camps.
But yes I agree they’re sliding into the depths of authoritarianism.
The USA has its own issues. It has relatively high inequality compared to other civilized countries. Discrimination against black Americans is still present. And the USA is a prison country, one in every 150 Americans is in prison right now, a number 5-10 times higher than European countries and also higher than China.
I was talking about the US carceral state, i.e., the inhumane American exception from the global norm that is considered “normal” in the US. The US system is slightly more intelligent than blanketly imprisoning a population. No. First the US marginalizes and impoverishes them, then over-polices them, then finds little justifications to label them criminals, then does the imprisonment. That this is entirely normalized and nuanced and cast as complex in a country that considers itself “a city on the hill” or whatever bullshit, is irrelevant. If China had Hollywood and good copaganda TV shows, they would have also convinced the world that their carceral system is normal.
The world has quickly disregarded the fact they only a couple of months ago they noisily and publicly executed 10s of thousands of protesters.
Wasn’t 10,000s if you’re referring to Iran. Maybe stop watching Fox News.
3000 admitted to by the Iranian government which is a disgrace no matter how you want to swing it
7000 named and verified by HRANA with another 17,000 under investigation https://www.iranintl.com/en/202602021839.
Over 30,000 based on eye witness testimony from doctors, morgue and cemetery workers and other witnesses.
Thats from the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead
So no, nothing to do with Fox News. Maybe stop trying to defend a murderous regime eh?
HRANA is quite literally a CIA-Backed NGO btw. You fell for it again.
Whatever you say mate.
Just casually ignore everything else, including the 3000+ murders the government admits to
Don’t waste your time talking to tankies
At least this one gives it away with his name. Usually their simping for China gives them away.
They only accept their little cesspit of information as facts. Everything else is conspiracy theories or state funded propaganda.
Hardly murders when the CIA has already admitted to trying to instigate another colour revolution and has been consistently trying to do so for the last 60 years.
Maybe don’t try to rise up and overthrow your government when over 70% of the people approve of your government over western liberal democracy?
Maybe don’t take AKs to your local riot when less than .001% of your neighborhood, much less country is participating in the riot?
Maybe, like all organic revolutions, organize and get popular support before attempting to rise up instead of accepting CIA funding and weaponry to do Israel’s bidding?
Yeah, it sucks Mossad had agents in Iran, and it sucks they were able to get the most disenfranchised people to essentially kill themselves using the government as a weapon. We should condemn the US and Israel’s role in this.
But maybe the Iranian people, and this will be a shock to someone like you who openly posts CIA propaganda, DON’T WANT WHITE PEOPLE’S HELP.
Yawn.
I’m assuming you are off to live in the utopian theocractic paradise of Iran then?
It is amazing how simplistic your world view is; truly it is impressive how little you seem to care to expand your knowledge or world view.
A place being different does not mean you need to ride in on your high horse and foment chaos and destruction in the vague hope they’ll be more amicable to your corporate masters.
Especially being on a .uk domain you should know that YOUR COUNTRY IS THE SOLE REASON IRAN IS A THEOCRATIC REPUBLIC. The sole reason. The literal only one.
If you people would have just accepted not having them as a colonial resource state with a puppet regime and allowed them to nationalize their resources instead of letting BP continue to rape their land and air while paying them next to nothing, YOU WOULD HAVE HAD A WESTERN LIBERAL DEMOCRACY IN IRAN STILL.
But no, despite having a stable and developing Iran, you people decided it would be less harmful to install a monarchy and then when that didn’t work you people decided to do another revolution except oops, you failed and now it’s a theocratic republic.
If Western powers had left Iran alone to develop into socialism, yes the UK would be poorer, yes Israel would have actual threats in the region, and yes the oil market in the 1970s would have been even more anti-western than it was; but Iran would be a beacon of democratic socialism on par with Norway.
BUT YOU PEOPLE DIDN’T WANT THAT. Just like your criticisms now ring hollow as you advocate for civil war and revolution yet again despite knowing your false nonsense is the reason you criticize the current government.
You, being a citizen of the UK, US, or Israel have no moral high ground. You are much more immoral than any muslim theocrat in iran. You are worse than any terrorist.
this dude found out that the moon landing was an american public relations operation and concluded that the moon must not be real
