US being upstaged by China: survey

NEW YORK: China has surpassed or will surpass the United States as the leading superpower, says a new global survey released on Thursday.

The PEW survey says: “Despite the view in many countries that China either has or will surpass the US as the leading superpower, opinion of America remains favourable, on balance.”

Majorities in Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, Mexico and China itself also foresee China supplanting the US as the world’s dominant power. In most countries for which there are trends, the view that China will overtake the US has increased substantially over the past two years, including by 10 or more percentage points in Spain, France, Pakistan, Britain, Jordan, Israel, Poland and Germany.

Among Americans, the percentage saying that China will eventually overshadow or has already overshadowed the US has increased from 33 per cent in 2009 to 46pc in 2011.

The survey says that at least some of this changed view of the global balance of power may reflect the fact that the US is increasingly seen as trailing China economically. This is especially the case in Western Europe, where the percentage naming China as the top economic power has increased by double digits in Spain, Germany, Britain and France since 2009.

The median percentage offering a positive assessment of the US is 60pc among the 23 countries surveyed. The US receives high marks in Western Europe, where at least six-in-ten in France, Spain, Germany and Britain rate the US positively.

Opinion of the US is also consistently favourable across Eastern Europe, as well as in Japan, Kenya, Israel, Brazil and Mexico.

As in years past, US image continues to suffer among predominantly Muslim countries, with the exception of Indonesia, where a majority expresses positive views of the US. One-in-five or fewer in Egypt, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey view America favourably.

In Lebanon, opinion of the US is split, reflecting a religious and sectarian divide; the country’s Shia community has overwhelmingly negative views of America, while Lebanese Sunnis and Christians are more positive.

Views of the US in the Muslim world reflect, at least in part, opposition to the war in Afghanistan and US efforts to fight terrorism. Moreover, few in predominantly Muslim countries say the US takes a multilateral approach to foreign policy.

Fewer than a quarter in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey say the US takes the interests of countries like theirs into account when making foreign policy decisions, the survey said.

In Western Europe, fewer than half in Britain (40pc), France (32pc) and Spain (19pc) say the US takes the interests of other countries into account when making foreign policy decisions. Only in Germany does a majority feel otherwise. In Eastern Europe, a third or less believe America acts multilaterally.