China’s international image has improved in many surveyed countries, while the United States has lost ground in many of the same comparisons. That gives China a relative soft-power advantage—but current surveys do not show that Trump’s tariffs caused it. The most useful evidence is what people say about China’s favorability, reliability and role in the world, read alongside continuing concerns about its conduct and the survey timing.
What “soft power” means in these surveys
Soft power is influence rooted in attraction and perceived legitimacy rather than coercion. It is not a single survey score. Public favorability, whether people regard a country as a reliable partner, and whether they think it contributes to peace and stability are relevant indicators, but they do not establish that governments will align with that country or that people will choose its products, investments or policies.
That distinction matters here. A more favorable view of China is not the same as preferring China over the United States as an economic partner, and a relative advantage can grow because one country’s image improves, the other’s declines, or both.
What the latest opinion data show
Pew Research Center’s 2026 comparative survey interviewed 42,151 adults in 36 countries and territories from February 8 to May 13. In most of those places, more respondents viewed China favorably than the United States. The results reflect both rising views of China and falling views of the U.S.; they do not mean that respondents everywhere became more positive about Beijing.
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| Finding | What it measures |
|---|---|
| In Italy, 51% had a favorable view of China in 2026, compared with 45% in 2025 and 31% in 2022. | Pew’s measure of favorability; the 2026 result is 20 percentage points above 2022. |
| In Spain, 54% had a favorable view of China in 2026, up 17 percentage points from 2025. | Pew’s measure of favorability. |
| Across 17 middle-income countries, a median 75% said the U.S. interferes in other countries a great deal or a fair amount; 45% said the same of China. | Perceptions of interference, not a measure of diplomatic alignment or actual conduct. |
| In South Africa, 72% called China a reliable partner, compared with 46% for the U.S. Sixty-four percent said China contributes to peace and stability, up from 47% in 2023. | Perceptions of reliability and China’s international role. |
These country-level gains do not describe a uniform global shift. Pew found generally more positive views of China in surveyed emerging economies in Latin America, Africa, and parts of South and Southeast Asia than in wealthier European and East Asian countries.
Where opinions diverge
Country differences can be substantial even within a region. In Pew’s 2026 questions in 17 middle-income countries, 84% of respondents in Pakistan viewed China as a reliable partner, compared with 42% in the Philippines. In the Philippines, 81% viewed the U.S. as a reliable partner. Views of Chinese interference also varied: 68% in Sri Lanka said China interferes in other countries a great deal or a fair amount, compared with 19% in Turkey.
There is also a difference between liking a country and wanting closer economic ties with it. In Pew’s 2025 survey of 25 countries, more people in 15 countries viewed China more favorably than the year before. Yet in 19 countries, more respondents prioritized strong economic ties with the U.S.; Australia, Indonesia and South Africa were the exceptions that prioritized ties with China. Favorability and preferred economic partnership are related, but they are not interchangeable.
Why the surveys do not prove tariffs caused the shift
The timing limits what can be inferred. Pew interviewed more than 30,000 people across 25 countries from January 8 to April 26, 2025, but most interviews took place before President Trump announced sweeping global tariffs on April 2. That survey can show that some favorable trends were already underway; it cannot demonstrate that the April tariff escalation produced them.
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Pew’s 2026 survey provides newer observations, but it is still observational public-opinion research. It does not isolate tariff exposure from other events or identify tariffs as the cause of changing views. The evidence supports the narrower conclusion that China’s image improved in many surveyed places while U.S. views weakened—not that the trade war created that change.
China’s gains coexist with substantial reservations
Positive assessments of China do not erase concerns about its record. Pew’s 2026 findings include worries about personal freedoms, possible conflict with neighbors and Chinese interference abroad. In the comparison of perceived respect for personal freedoms, the U.S. retained an advantage, although that advantage narrowed largely because U.S. ratings fell.
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That mix is important to interpreting soft power: respondents may see China as reliable or as contributing to stability while also objecting to its domestic or foreign policy. No single favorable percentage captures those competing judgments.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What trade-war assessments add—and what they do not
A 2026 CSIS ChinaPower Project survey of experts found that about 65% characterized China’s 2025 trade-war strategy as combining offensive and defensive measures; about 27% called it primarily offensive, and fewer than 10% said it was mainly defensive. The project summarized the year this way: “Economics and trade issues dominated U.S.-China relations in 2025.” These are expert assessments of Beijing’s strategy and the bilateral relationship, not evidence that the strategy changed foreign publics’ views.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesSeparate U.S. polling offers context about how Americans perceive the tariffs. In surveys conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, NPR and Ipsos in March and May 2026, 72% of Americans said tariffs on Chinese imports had been bad for China’s economy, 66% said they had been bad for the U.S. economy, and 76% said they had been bad for the U.S. cost of living. These are respondents’ judgments, not independent estimates of economic effects, and they do not measure international opinion of China.
What this means for readers following trade and household costs
For a personal-finance reader, the key distinction is between geopolitical perception and a measured effect on a household budget. The polling above can tell you how people view China, the U.S. and tariffs; it does not calculate how tariffs affect prices, wages, investments or an individual household’s finances. The American survey figures describe perceptions of those effects, not an economic estimate.
So the evidence supports a qualified answer to the headline question: China has gained relative standing in many surveyed countries, an outcome consistent with stronger soft power. But the available data do not establish that Trump’s trade war caused the gain, and the shift is neither universal nor equivalent to broad support for China.
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