While it broods over China’s economic, military and technical advance, the Trump administration is accelerating Beijing’s diplomatic progress, as striking new polling by the Pew Research Center shows. For the first time, China and Xi Jinping are seen more favourably than the US and its president in most of the 36 major countries surveyed – including Canada, Mexico and Australia. Only in six countries did people rate the US more highly.
While Beijing has seen significant improvements in some places, the slump in Washington’s standing is more dramatic. Across 20 countries, the median percentage with a favourable view of China rose from 32% to 46% between 2023 and this year; for the US, it fell from 58% to 36%.
All the winning
This is true.
And, like the major provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill, the worst effects aren’t going to be felt until after the mid-terms. It takes approximately two years for new trade deals to take effect, and the America-avoidant trade deals that were negotiated post tariffs in 2025 are going to hurt when they go into effect.