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.
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.
no surprise, tiktok did wonders
China: thank god the bar moved soo much lower
Thats what you get when you vote in a nutcase as your president…twice
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
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.
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.
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.
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The thing with people like you is you cannot accept that both sides can be bad.
I’ll reiterate America are fucked. Them being fucked doesnt make china/iran/Russia the good guys.
The thing with people like you is you’re informed solely by Western imperial war propaganda, which has whole agencies devoted to smearing those who pose a threat to US hegemony. The reality is this is a world made up of sovereign nations who have been largely threatened, sanctioned, and attacked by the US empire since its inception, especially those who are communist or who have been communist in the past.
Zionist mod deleting your comments also seems CIA adjacent.
So you’re denying the Iranians have killed thousands of their own people? Even though they’ve admitted it.
You’re denying they’re an authoritarian theocracy that trampled on the rights of women. Even though they admit it.
Your whole shtick is “I know the Iranian government is terrible, but I’m incapable of admitting it and instead I’ll just try and make excuses”.
I’m bored of you, and stop following me around like some weird fucking stalker.
As if the US doesn’t kill millions of its own people and abroad. The latest example being the foodaid and health insurance cuts among others. Iran bombings killed already more than they supposedly killed themselves. So this free the woman of iran propaganda is already more like, you will all be free in death. Not to forget Iran only has this regime because of prior US intervention, killing their democratic leader.
So because America does it and has (and still does shitty things), that gives iran a free pass?
😂 Dude I literally just commented on two of your comments in the same thread. That makes me a stalker? And you have proven my point. You are choosing to believe and regurgitate CIA propaganda that has manufactured consent for these war crimes.
Iran is not an authoritarian theocracy that tramples on the rights of women. You know who is? Saudi Arabia, a US ally (and vassal state), where women can’t vote or drive cars. You don’t see us bombing and regime changing them. You know why? Because they do what the US says and we profit off of their oil. Iranian women can vote and Iran has a much higher percentage of women in higher education/who have graduated with PhDs than the US. Iran even has a hugely larger literacy rate among its population than the US.
The official death toll from the supposed tens of thousands of “peaceful protesters” killed by the Iranian government is reported as around 3,500. Israel even admitted that these were largely Kurdish separatists and other violent pro-West agitators in Iran that were being incited, armed, and organized by the CIA and the Mossad (who infiltrated and operated with the help of smuggled Starlink terminals–the only reason the riots ended was because Iran blacked out their internet to stop CIA/Mossad communications with their organizers outside Iran). These rioters were fucking burning down schools and mosques. Conveniently, these incited riots happened right before USreal started committing war crimes against Iran, and the whole of Western mainstream media ran with it, some saying 7,000 “peaceful protesters” killed, some saying 10,000, some saying 30,000, some even saying 80,000. These claims were in the service of manufacturing consent among the public of Western nations to tolerate and/or support these aggressions against the sovereign nation of Iran.
This is all besides the point, though. Regardless of what happens in other countries or whether or not their governments are oppressive or “democratic” or WHATEVER, IT IS WRONG FOR THE US OR ANY OTHER COUNTRY TO INTERFERE IN THE GOVERNMENT OF ANY OTHER COUNTRY TO DEPOSE THEIR LEADERS AND STEAL THEIR RESOURCES. PERIOD.
Regardless of what happens in other countries or whether or not their governments are oppressive or “democratic” or WHATEVER, IT IS WRONG FOR THE US OR ANY OTHER COUNTRY TO INTERFERE IN THE GOVERNMENT OF ANY OTHER COUNTRY TO DEPOSE THEIR LEADERS AND STEAL THEIR RESOURCES. PERIOD.
who said it is not wrong?
violent pro-West agitators in Iran that were being incited, armed, and organized by the CIA and the Mossad (who infiltrated and operated with the help of smuggled Starlink terminals–the only reason the riots ended was because Iran blacked out their internet to stop CIA/Mossad communications with their organizers outside Iran)
I have a hard time believing riots stopped because internet was cut out. people won’t just forget their motives when there’s no internet, like some remote controlled robot becoming completely inactive.
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.
this dude found out that the moon landing was an american public relations operation and concluded that the moon must not be real
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Whatever you say mate.
Just casually ignore everything else, including the 3000+ murders the government admits to
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.
Not particularly fond of either of them
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.
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.
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.
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?!?
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.
