European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

Pew Institute: China more popular than the US in Europe

by Coug
Fri Jun 24th, 2005 at 01:37:11 AM EST

WASHINGTON -- The outpouring of aid for tsunami victims in Asia and President Bush's push for democracy in the Middle East have helped abate anti-Americanism around the world, a survey of public opinion in 16 nations found.

Those gains have been largely offset, however, by opposition to the Iraq war and antagonism toward Bush personally, according to a study released.

...

For the United States, the survey shows a world in which some old friends are estranged and surprising new friends are emerging. Attitudes toward the United States have improved significantly in Russia, India and Indonesia. They remain positive in Poland.

But in most of Europe, China -- a country that lacks democratic elections or personal freedoms -- had a better image than the United States. Positive attitudes toward the United States fell in Canada and Great Britain. In Pakistan and Turkey, key allies in the war on terrorism, fewer than one in four viewed the United States favorably.

...

More below the fold...

What's interesting to note is that former allies, except Poland of course, have judged the US and found them too light. At the same time, Moslem countries, even those where Us reputation is already at a lowpoint, attributes democracy and hope for democracy to US efforts in the region.

Meanwhile, the reelection of Bush and the Iraq war has made sure that US popularity is still at a low, despite positive stories like Tsunami aid etc. And of course, the world thinks the ousting of Saddam Hussain hasn't made the world any safer.

Also worth noting is that of all the "coalition" countries in the Iraq war, only the Dutch thought the Government had made the right decision in joining the Iraq war. Even the Poles felt their Government had made a mistake there.

So, how will the Us try to correct their image in Europe, to become more popular than China again?

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Pew Institute: China more popular than the US in Europe | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Farts are mor popular right now... (4.00 / 3)

I heard people interviewed on American public radio yesterday about this who were either from Pew directly or some other org who read the report carefully and analyzed it - anyway they said almost everyone has a bad opinion of Americans right now... including Americans... He said the polling discovered that 70 some percent of Americans find Americans rude, greedy and with 'somewhat of a violent streak'. Well as they say in rural America... "A skunk smells his own hole first..."

The host of the show said "Hmmmmm looks like we have an image problem..." When I heard that I about got in touch with my personal 'violent streak'... and wanted to tear the radio out of the car and toss it at someone... preferably at a certain radio host... unfortunately he was a couple thousand km away.

This problem is a lot more than just about 'image' or what others think...

"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." - Peter Steiner

by dryfly (jjwhodat at hotmail dot com) on Fri Jun 24th, 2005 at 07:03:53 AM EST

Re: Farts are mor popular right now... (none / 1)

Actually, check out, the 70% of Americans who believe "Greedy" characterises Americans was the highest of all countries polled!

And, guess which was the only country where only a minority agreed Americans are greedy?
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If you used counter-intuition, you got it right: it was France!

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Sun Jun 26th, 2005 at 07:29:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Survey Is Here/Brief Summary (4.00 / 3)

If I have a chance later on, I may attempt a more detailed analysis of the report itself, but for now, it can be found here: Pew Global Attitudes Project. The underlying data can be found in this PDF.

Just a couple of quick points:

The only nations surveyed where the U.S. was viewed more favorably than China were Poland (62 versus 36 percent) and India (71 versus 56). Canada ranked the U.S. and China even, but China's unfavorable rating was lower by 10 percent.

Leaving Poland aside, the favorability gap between the U.S. and China was generally around 10 percent throughout the rest of the European nations. Interestingly, France's view of the U.S. is improved since March 2004 (37%), and well above where it was in March 2003 (31%):

Most people in Western Europe who hold unfavorable views of the U.S. make George Bush responsible for their position, not a general problem with America. And in what I would consider a very dangerous sign, Americans view themselves as not nearly religious enough, while Europe generally would significantly disagree. Muslim nations, however, would appear to side with Americans on this question:

As with all these Pew Research surveys, there's a wealth of information to be gleaned from the report and the data (far from all of it about the U.S.), and I'd recommend that the community spend a little time trying to digest everything that's in here.

by The Maven on Fri Jun 24th, 2005 at 10:00:07 AM EST

Religiosity (none / 0)

I wonder why the French have the best sense of how out-of-control Radical Christianism is in the U.S. It surprises me that equally secular countries, like Great Britain and Germany, don't seem to get what a problem "religiosity" is in the U.S.

by Matt in NYC on Sat Jun 25th, 2005 at 09:57:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Religiosity (4.00 / 2)

I think the obvious (and thus probably too simplistic) answer is that this is the same France that had enacted an absolute prohibition against overt displays of religious symbols by schoolchildren. While the UK and Germany are generally as secular, neither one has the same depth of feeling regarding walls between church and state that has been a recurrent feature of French society since the Revolution. My hunch is that this goes a long way to explaining why they're the most sensitive to this perception of the U.S.

What's really notable, though, is that if one looks at the dataset, the French actually perceive America as "too religious" to a lesser degree than they did in 2003. While we're not talking about a huge shift, the figure in 2003 was 65% viewing the U.S. as too religious (compared with "only" 61% in 2005). Again, this may have been influenced by their own experience with the recent student prohibitions.

by The Maven on Sat Jun 25th, 2005 at 01:48:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The really interesting data (4.00 / 3)

All countries surveyed (including the UK) view France more positively than they do the US
At first glance, this appears to be true of Germany, too. Even the the Poles view Germany more favorably than they do the US. (64% favorable to Germany v. 62% favorable to US)
In every European country, the self-assessment is significantly less positive than in the US.

by cambridgemac on Fri Jun 24th, 2005 at 10:22:58 AM EST

All good signs (none / 0)

It's going to take at least a generation for Americans to repair the damage Bushco has wreaked on the U.S. Let's hope Europe gets its act together and realizes that they have to trust and rely on one another.

by Matt in NYC on Sat Jun 25th, 2005 at 10:02:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Thanks George... (none / 1)

when Canada ranks opinions toward China even with the US, then the US really has something to worry about. And there's no chance of this improving until the 2006 elections.

The world needs to get this message to Americans, but darned if I know how. Any formal communications will just hit the defensive screen that the US media-White House symbiosis keeps in place at present.

by gradinski chai on Fri Jun 24th, 2005 at 01:05:56 PM EST

Even we don't know how (none / 1)

and the scary thing that I see happening here is that even if this message seeps through (i.e., the rest of the world thinks we're dangerous, opinion of us is at an all-time low, etc. etc.) too often the response is "the hell with 'em! why should I care what they think?" or something along those lines.

It's a scary time to be here if you aren't one of the brainwashed masses -- even scarier to be raising kids!

by brinnainne on Fri Jun 24th, 2005 at 06:06:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

As much as I'd love to blame (none / 1)

the "White House," I think it's the American people who are mostly at fault. As Brinnaine points out, many -- maybe most -- Americans couldn't care less what "foreigners" think of them. It's "USA! USA!" for them, no matter how incompetent and immoral our foreign policies are.

Personally, I think most Americans are in a state of severe denial. Like most states of denial, this one is due to Americans not being strong or courageous enough to face the facts. Sadly, it's going to take more than a Pew Survey to get Americans to begin to deal realistically with our country's -- and the world's -- problems.

by Matt in NYC on Sat Jun 25th, 2005 at 09:52:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

For Western Europe, It's Bush (none / 1)

Pretty much without exception, the Western European nations surveyed blamed George W. Bush for their negative views by margins of about two-to-one (as opposed to a "more general problem with Americans". The most extreme example of this was found in Spain, where 76% blamed Bush, while only 14% had blamed Americans in general.

In response to another question, their views towards Americans (in contrast to the U.S.) are generally in the range of 65% favorable, which should help repair a lot of the damage to the country's image if a new administration appears more willing to actually engage the global community.

What I found somewhat remarkable was that Americans very much realized the extent to which their nation is disliked by the rest of the world: only 26% believe that the U.S. is generally liked, while 69% say that it is disliked. This is probably a healthy skepticism. (Canadians have the most positive view of their perception by the rest of the world, with 94% thinking that they're liked. The only other countries surveyed which feel that the world doesn't like them are Russia and Turkey.)

by The Maven on Sat Jun 25th, 2005 at 02:23:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Pew Institute: China more popular than the US (none / 0)

At the same time, Moslem countries, even those where Us reputation is already at a lowpoint, attributes democracy and hope for democracy to US efforts in the region.

Coug, you have misread the poll.

Check answers to MQ.37 and MQ.38. The relative majorities of those who think US policies are "at least partly" responsible for positive developments on the democracy front are only of those who are optimistic about a move towards democracy, not all polled. At the same time, wide majorities of the pessimists fault the USA - the end result is USA-blamers for de-democratisation outweighting USA-thankers for democratisation in each case. In particular:

In Turkey, of the 33% optimists, only 34% (vs. 51%) credit the USA, that's 11.22% of all - while of the 41% pessimists, a full 83% blame the USA, or 34,03% of all.

In Pakistan, of the 23% optimists, 55% (vs. 28%) credit the USA, that's 12.65% of all - while of the 31% pessimists, 67% blame the USA, or 20,77% of all.

In 'Cedar Revolution' Lebanon, of the 46% optimists, 49% (vs. 44%) credit the USA, that's 22.54% of all - while of the 34% pessimists, 75% blame the USA, or 25,5% of all.

In Jordan, of the 37% optimists, 49% (vs. 44%) credit the USA, that's 18.13% of all - while of the 40% pessimists, 98%(!) blame the USA, or 39,2% of all.

In Indonesia, of the 40% optimists, just 28% (vs. 63%) credit the USA, that's 11.2% of all - while of the 33% pessimists, 62% blame the USA, or 20,46% of all.

Note tough, that the largest group in each country sees no US effect at all.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Sun Jun 26th, 2005 at 07:59:55 AM EST

Re: Pew Institute: China more popular than the US (none / 1)

One more thing about the Pew International Attitudes Survey: there is the following note on the first page of the PDF The Maven linked to:

NOTE: Data based on national samples except in China, India and Pakistan where the sample was
disproportionately or exclusively urban.

I might add, probably even this urban sample isn't complete: slum dwellers might not have been appropiately represented.

I suspect this circumstance explains some strange numbers from India, in particular: we only see the opinions of urban elites and upper middle class.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Sun Jun 26th, 2005 at 08:05:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

It's not Bush, it's America (none / 1)

I wonder how long Europeans will continue think that it's not a general problem with America?

After all Bush was elected to office. Ok, you can dispute that if you want, but in any case there's a pretty good chance that we'll elect another Republican next time around. How many chances do we get before Europeans figure out that Bush's election reflected the preference of around half of voters?

The problem is only partially the current administration. Much of what is different between Europe and the USA reflects true differences in opinion between the continents.

by asdf on Sun Jun 26th, 2005 at 09:05:23 AM EST

Pew Institute: China more popular than the US in Europe | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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