New Pew polling clarifies the scale of the reputational hit China's taken in 2020:

-- Respondents across 14 surveyed countries held an unfavorable opinion of China

-- In nine of the countries -- including the U.S., Germany, the U.K., South Korea, Australia and Canada -- negative opinion reached its highest point since Pew began polling on the topic more than a decade ago

-- Negative views of China increased the most in Australia, with 81% now viewing the Asian superpower unfavorably, an increase of 24 percentage points since last year

-- In the U.K., 74% now view China negatively (up 19 points)

--In the U.S., negative views have increased 13 points since last year

-- In Sweden, negative views of China reached 85% and in Japan the figure was 86%

-- Across the 14 countries surveyed, a median of 61% said China had done a bad job handling the virus

-- Only the U.S. scored worse, with a median of 84% saying it handled the outbreak poorly

The survey also suggests that perceptions of Xi are contributing to China’s declining reputation:

-- Negative views of Xi reached all-time highs in all countries for which past data was available, with the exceptions of Japan and Spain

-- A median of just 19% of respondents said they had confidence in Xi to do the right thing in global affairs, a figure just above Trump’s 17% on the same measure

Research available here: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/?utm_source=AdaptiveMailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20-10-5