"Over the past 20 years, the largest gap China has led the United States by"

The United States is accelerating its “loss of the world.”

According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, results of a global public-opinion survey released on the 4th by the U.S. polling organization Gallup show that in 2025, China surpassed the United States in global recognition. The median approval rate for China’s leadership is 36%, leading the United States by 5 percentage points.

“The Gallup World Public Opinion Poll” is one of the largest multinational public-opinion surveys in the world, both in terms of scope and duration. In 2025, Gallup conducted the survey in 130+ countries and regions to compare the global leadership of China, the United States, Germany, and Russia.

Gallup survey report screenshot

According to Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po, this is the widest margin by which Gallup has recorded China leading the United States in global recognition in nearly 20 years. China leads the United States in all three indicators: global median recognition, net recognition, and relative net recognition.

In 23 countries and regions, satisfaction with China’s leadership increased by more than 10 percentage points. Previously, China had surpassed the United States in leadership recognition twice: once during President George W. Bush’s term, and once during President Trump’s first term.

The survey data show that the share recognizing U.S. leadership is 31% (down 8 percentage points from last year); the share not recognizing U.S. leadership is 48%, the highest since the survey began.

Over the past year, U.S. support ratings plunged by more than 10 percentage points in 44 countries and regions, with particularly significant declines among NATO allies: Germany, Portugal, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Italy all fell sharply. Germany saw the largest drop, with recognition down by 39 percentage points; Portugal fell by 38 percentage points; and long-standing allies such as Canada, the UK, and Italy also experienced large declines.

In recent years, the United States’ international reputation has continued to decline. A series of self-inflicted moves has repeatedly undermined the stability of the international order: in just one year, Trump’s tariff policies went through more than 50 changes, turning into a tool of extortion and triggering a U.S. economic recession, accelerating the decline of U.S. hegemony; Trump does not rule out using force to seize Greenland, further widening rifts within NATO; the United States has withdrawn from 31 UN entities and 35 non-UN organizations, for a total of 66 international organizations, leaving it in a more vulnerable position in global governance.

At the beginning of 2026, the disorder and chaos around the world are no doubt closely related to the United States. The Ukraine crisis, geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East, U.S. surprise strikes against Venezuela, and actions against Iran—international rules have once again been repeatedly trampled on and damaged… As U.S. scholars such as Noam Chomsky put it, the United States has become a “rogue superpower.”

Song Luzheng, a political science scholar and researcher at the China Studies Institute of Fudan University, said that Gallup’s global survey highlights the important role China is playing in the current international order. The certainty, continuity, and reliability China has demonstrated are being recognized by an increasing number of countries and regions.

Industry expert Chen Jing, R&D Director of Asian Vision Technology, pointed out that China’s approval rate has basically remained around a median of 35% over the past decade. This year’s annual global leadership poll shows China leading the United States by 5 percentage points, indicating that it is not simply that China suddenly “won the world,” but that the United States is accelerating its “loss of the world.”

He specifically noted that the poll was released on February 28, 2026, before the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel war. He believes that after this, U.S. poll data would further decline.

Editor: Yu Yongjie

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