America’s Decline, China’s Chance

Translated by eChinacities from DW News

The latest Pew poll has demonstrated that many of America’s old allies no longer see the U.S. as the top global economic power. Rather, many are beginning to see China as the new global economic hegemon.

On July 16, 2017, media outlets reported that the Pew Center’s July 13 poll indicated that out of 38 countries around the globe, 42% saw America as the number one global economic power, where as 32% indicated a belief that this title now belonged to China.

Foreign Policy magazine explained that 42,000 people took part in the survey and that although most of the countries who took part indicated that they still believed the United States to be the top economic power, countries including Canada, Russia and seven of the 12 European Union nations all indicated that China now holds the title.

India’s Economic Times pointed out that something that is worth noting is that of those respondents from America’s long-time ally Australia, China lead America by a 58% to 29% ratio. As of now, Australia's top partner in trade is China.

The Pew Research Center states that over the past year, many American trade partners and allies have begun to believe that American economic power is weakening. The trend is evident in a number of European countries, where, in recent years their views of comparative global economic power have been shifting. “But these shifts are not limited to Europe; perceptions have also changed significantly in countries such as Canada, Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines,” Pew adds.

Pew Research Center discovered that in 2014 and 2016, only six countries indicated a belief that Beijing held the title of top economic power in response to the same question. From that time on, the number of countries that believed America was falling behind China doubled. The most astonishing part about this is that such a changed happened within the span of a year. Canada, England, Germany and Spain all ceased marking the U.S. as the number one economic power. For Italy, the U.S. is now tied with China.

The data would seem to indicate that America’s position on the world stage is slipping, and, by the same token, China is playing a more active role.

Of the 42,000 respondents from 38 countries, a median of 49% maintain a favorable view of the United States, while a median of 47% hold a favorable view of China. Alternatively, 37% of respondent have unfavorable views of China, a proportion which is 39% for America. American opinion of China was in line with these statistics, while Japan and Vietnam had the most negative view of their large neighbor.

China’s improving status in the eyes of the world may be attributed to America’s perceived decline, Pew states. “While the United States and other relatively wealthy Western nations have slowly bounced back from the crisis, economic growth rates have been low compared with those of China, India and other emerging economies,” the report explains.

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