Monday, May 4, 2026
Americans’ views toward China are changing, according to a recent Pew Research Center report published this April: today, 27 percent of Americans have a positive opinion of China, up six percentage points from last year and nearly double the share from 2023.
Amid several notable findings in the survey, some of the most striking are:
- Confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping to do the right thing regarding world affairs has increased four percentage points since last year and has roughly doubled since 2023.
- When asked whether China is a partner, enemy, or competitor of the United States, fewer Americans now describe China as an enemy than in 2025, though most still view it as a competitor.
- Slightly fewer Americans now than last year say China benefits from trade at the expense of the United States.
In an interview conducted on May 4, 2026, Laura Silver joins Steve Orlins to discuss the data on how American perceptions of China have changed over the past year.
Speaker
Laura Silver
Laura Silver is an associate director at Pew Research Center. She is an expert in international survey research and writes about a variety of topics, including global attitudes toward China, views of democracy, and opinions about foreign policy. On the quantitative side, she is involved in all aspects of the Center’s research process, including designing survey questionnaires and sample designs, managing fieldwork, processing and analyzing data, and writing reports.
Dr. Silver received a dual Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication and the political science department at the University of Pennsylvania where her work focused on American public opinion of China, particularly in the context of presidential elections. Her work has been published in journals such as the International Journal of Public Opinion Research and International Studies Quarterly. She regularly shares findings on international public opinion with U.S. and international media outlets.
