China’s image is at an all-time low in many Western countries, where opinion overwhelmingly critical of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday.
Carried out in 14 countries, this study highlights a sharp deterioration in China’s rating in the United States, where President Donald Trump has continued since the spring of wanting to blame the Chinese authorities for the global spread of the coronavirus.
According to this poll, 73% of Americans have a bad opinion of China, an increase of nearly twenty points since the arrival of the Republican billionaire to the White House in 2017.
The Chinese rating is even more degraded in Australia, a country which has displayed a position similar to Washington’s on Beijing’s role in the pandemic and has suffered trade retaliation: 81% of Australians have a bad opinion of China, or 24 more points in just one year.
The image of the Asian giant is also at an all-time low in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, as well as in Asia, South Korea.
China is widely accused of having initially lacked transparency on the severity of the coronavirus, even if the communist authorities have since highlighted their ability to curb the epidemic to set themselves an example.
In all the countries covered by the survey, 61% of those questioned believe that Beijing has mismanaged the pandemic.
Only the United States, the most bereaved country in the world with 210,000 deaths from COVID-19, scores worse in this regard.
A previous study by the Pew Research Center had shown in September that the image of the United States was also at its lowest among other rich countries, precisely because of Washington’s response to the health crisis, and doubts around the leadership of Donald Trump.
