Americans’ views on China soften after years of record negativity: survey

Americans’ views of China have become modestly more positive after several years of sharply negative sentiment, according to a March survey by the Pew Research Center. The share of U.S. adults with favorable opinions rose to 27%, up from 21% last year and roughly double the level recorded in 2023. Even with that increase, 71% continue to view China unfavorably.

Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, favorable views rose by 8 percentage points over the past year, while Republican opinion showed little change. Younger Americans were also more likely to view China positively, with 34% of adults under 50 expressing favorable views compared with 19% of those 50 and older.

Those divides extend to how Americans describe the relationship between Washington and Beijing. In separate Pew polling conducted in January, 60% of Americans described China as a competitor, up from 56% a year earlier, while 28% called it an enemy, down from 33%, and about one-in-10 said China is a partner of the U.S. Fourteen percent of Democrats described China as an enemy in 2026, down from 22% in 2025 and 28% in 2024, while 72% said China is a competitor.

Republicans remained more likely to describe China as an adversary, with Pew finding a sharp generational divide within the party: younger Republicans were 23 percentage points less likely than Republicans 50 and older to say China is an enemy of the U.S. A smaller share of Americans also said China benefits from trade at the expense of the U.S. compared with last year.

Americans continue to express limited confidence in China’s leadership. Pew reported that confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping to do the right thing regarding world affairs has increased by 4 percentage points in each of the last two years, roughly doubling since 2023, though most respondents still lack confidence.

Confidence in U.S. President Donald Trump to handle China policy has declined over the same period, with 39% of Americans saying they are confident in his decision-making, down from 45% in August 2025. The partisan divide remains wide, with 71% of Republicans expressing confidence compared with 11% of Democrats, and younger Republicans less likely than older Republicans to say they trust Trump on China.

The findings come as global polling indicates China has gained ground in leadership approval abroad while U.S. ratings have declined, particularly among traditional allies. A Gallup World Poll found median approval of China’s leadership at 36% across more than 130 countries, compared with 31% for the U.S., with U.S. approval down from 39% in 2024 and China’s up from 32%.

A 2025 study published in Social Science Research found that negative perceptions of China can worsen Americans’ attitudes toward Asian Americans.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which rhetoric often linked the virus to China, Stop AAPI Hate documented 11,409 reported hate acts from Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2022.