{"id":337824,"date":"2026-07-15T12:58:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=337824"},"modified":"2026-08-12T12:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:36:33","slug":"chinas-image-in-the-asia-pacific-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/global\/2026\/07\/15\/chinas-image-in-the-asia-pacific-region\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s image in the Asia-Pacific region"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
About this research<\/summary>\n

This Pew Research Center report looks at international views of China and its leadership, including how opinions vary between high- and middle-income countries<\/a> and within the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did we do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. This international research on opinion of China builds on decades of previous work, including reports China\u2019s approach to foreign policy<\/a> and how views have shifted during Xi\u2019s presidency<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about Pew Research Center<\/a> and our international surveys<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did we do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We surveyed 45,658 people across 37 countries: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the U.K., the U.S., and the West Bank and East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviews were conducted from February 8 to May 13, 2026. We designed the surveys so we could talk about the views of the adult population in each country. Here are the survey questions used<\/a> for this report, along with responses, and the survey methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

People in the Asia-Pacific region have both the most positive and most negative opinions of China. For example, 90% of Pakistanis have a favorable<\/em> view of China, while 88% of Japanese have an unfavorable<\/em> view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These opinions tend to diverge along economic lines.<\/strong> People in middle-income Asia-Pacific countries \u2013 including Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand \u2013 tend to have confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping and to think the Chinese government respects the personal freedoms of its people, while the opposite is true in wealthier Australia, Japan and South Korea. Read more on views of China in high- and middle-income countries<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of this regional look at China, drawn from a larger survey of 37 countries<\/a> conducted this spring, we also asked people for their views on potential territorial conflicts, as well as on which country in the world is their top ally and top threat. Here, too, we find that opinions differ sharply across the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China as a threat and ally<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In an open-ended question about which country is the top threat to their own, Filipinos are the most likely to name China (76%). China was also the most common response in Japan (53%) and Australia (52%) as of 2025, when we last asked this question there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While China is not perceived as the top threat in South Korea \u2013 North Korea is, named by 43% of the public \u2013 it ranks second, mentioned by nearly a third (32%). The same is true in India, where 54% name Pakistan as their top threat, but China comes in second (21%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, only around one-in-ten or fewer name China as a top threat, often ranking it below the United States. In many of these same countries, China is frequently named as a top ally <\/em>in a separate open-ended question. In Pakistan, a 75% majority describe it as such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concern about territorial disputes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The publics most likely to name China among their greatest threats are also more concerned about territorial disputes between China and neighboring countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Concern about these disputes is especially strong in the East Asian countries surveyed and the Philippines, where at least eight-in-ten say they are very<\/em> concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These levels of concern have been high for over a decade. In Japan, the Philippines and South Korea at least eight-in-ten have been very or somewhat concerned about these disputes in surveys going back to 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But concern is changing in some of the other countries surveyed, with Australian and Indian adults now less<\/em> likely to express concern about territorial disputes than in 2024.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, adults in Thailand are significantly more<\/em> likely to be concerned about disputes, though this share is still relatively low compared with elsewhere in the region (52% in 2026 vs. 38% in 2024).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Views of China in Asia-Pacific countries diverge along economic lines, and perceptions of China as a threat or ally vary in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":658,"featured_media":337978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_api_pending":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_hidden":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[658,648],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[119,115],"tags":[],"bylines":[2745,633,954,589],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[506,516,504,498,514,497,513,509,510,505,515],"research-teams":[525],"workflow-status":[],"collection":[],"class_list":["post-337824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china-global-image","category-world-leaders","bylines-jonathan-schulman","bylines-laura-clancy","bylines-laura-silver","bylines-william-miner","formats-report","regions-countries-china","regions-countries-europe-russia","regions-countries-germany","regions-countries-india","regions-countries-international","regions-countries-israel","regions-countries-latin-america","regions-countries-mexico","regions-countries-middle-east-north-africa","regions-countries-multiple-regions-worldwide","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-global"],"label":"Report","post_parent":337799,"word_count":637,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/global\/2026\/07\/15\/chinas-image-in-the-asia-pacific-region\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":337978,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/07\/PG_26.08.04_GlobalViewsChina_featured@2x.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/07\/PG_26.08.04_GlobalViewsChina_featured@2x.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false,"caption":"People pose for a photo in front of giant national flag in Jiyuan, China, on Oct. 1, 2025. 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