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PDFIs the world’s leading democracy about to cede global supremacy to its most powerful authoritarian state?
Yes, according to public opinion in 15 of 22 nations surveyed in the new PEW annual Global Attitudes Project poll.
In most regions, the United States enjoys improved favorability ratings than over the past decade, but the balance of global opinion is that China either will replace or already has replaced the US as the world’s hegemon. This conviction is most widespread within some of the world’s other leading democracies in Western Europe, where 72% in France, 67% in Spain, 65% in Britain and 61% in Germany expect Communist China to best the U.S.
Majorities in Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, Mexico and China itself also expect China to assume the U.S.’s position as global #1. On the other hand…
Despite the bullish view of China’s rise in Western Europe, respondents in other regions had a different estimation. Just over a third of Turkish respondents thought that China would supplant the United States and 60 percent of Japanese respondents and 54 percent in Lebanon said China never will replace the United States as the leading power.
Read the full report at pewglobal.org and an analysis of the study in the Wall Street Journal by Pew Research Center president Andrew Kohut. (Registration may be required).
