Donald Trump has achieved something remarkable. According to a May Pew Research report most of the 36 countries surveyed found that more people have a favourable view of China than the US.

The survey results were based on 42,151 respondents and the favourable views were especially large in several Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries.

When the survey was taken 28% of respondents in Korea had a favourable view of China while 45% of the US sample had an unfavourable view of the US.

Given Donald Trump’s latest embrace of North Korea’s Jim Jong Un these numbers would be reversed dramatically. Once again Trump has been found to favour dictators above democrats.

Across 20 countries views of China have turned more positive and views of the US more negative.

Perhaps the most astonishing finding was that of those surveyed 56% of respondents believed the US does not respect the personal freedoms of its people compared with 58% for China.

There have been dramatic drops in respondents saying the US respects personal freedoms in Singapore, Spain, Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, South Korea and Australia.

Pew also found that in 17% of middle-income countries tend to say the US interferes more in other countries and that China is a more reliable partner.

When asked which countries interfered in the affairs of other countries and which is a more reliable partner 75% said the US interfered compared with 45% for China.

45% said the US was not at all, or not too reliable partners, compared with 49% saying China was a reliable partner and 69% saying a very reliable partner.

52% think the US contributes not much or not at all to peace and stability around the world compared with China’s 40% a great deal and 58% a fair amount.

When asked whether in taking international policy decisions the countries took into account the interests of countries like their own 51% said the US did so not too much and not all 42% while 57% said a fair amount.

When asked about favourable opinions of China and the US majority favourable views of China were held in Pakistan, Malaysia, West Bank/East Jerusalem, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Greece, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Chile, Canada, Peru, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia (not by much), Argentina, Germany, UK and Columbia, Brazil and Poland (narrowly).

Countries more positive of the US included Hungary, Poland (very narrowly), Philippines, South Korea, India, Japan and Israel – the massively more favourably viewed than any other nation – at 81% more favourable compared to China 19%.

Confidence in both Xi and Trump is generally low but many of the 36 countries surveyed view Xi more favourably.

The countries where the US-China favourability gap has reversed in recent years include Canada, Spain, Indonesia, UK, Australia, Sweden, Italy, Greece Netherlands, Germany, France and Argentina.

Meanwhile latest opinion polling is coming in on the forthcoming Israeli elections. A poll by The Economist (18 August 2026) found that the current Netanyahu coalition government would probably win about 53 seats while the opposition would win 65 seats.

61 seats are required for a majority. But Israeli elections and post-election manoeuvring are – to say the least – complex.

An ongoing rule of Israeli politics is never under-estimate Bibi. But it increasingly looks as if his time is really up this time.