China is seen increasingly favourably by people around the world, and most see it as eventually replacing the U.S. as the world’s superpower.
Those are some of the findings of a new survey by Pew Research Center, which polled more than 45,000 adults in 40 countries earlier this year to gauge how people around the world view the U.S. and China.
In 2014, a median of 49% of countries polled had a positive view of China; by the time the Pew poll was conducted earlier this year, among the 35 countries also polled the year prior, that figure had risen to 54%.
In Asia, where countries have bulked up their militaries despite a Chinese diplomatic offensive, respondents continue to feel more positively about the U.S. (66%) — which is seen as a counterweight in the region — than their larger neighbour (57%). The U.S. is also more popular in sub-Saharan Africa, though 70% of locals also express a positive view of China. (The Middle East was the sole region polled where respondents had a better impression of China than the U.S.)
