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.
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.
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.