World opinion of China and Russia slips

Global public perceptions of China and Russia's influence in the world have become more negative in the past year, according to the BBC World Service radio's annual poll of 21 countries published Friday. The poll, conducted since Barack Obama won the November 4 US presidential election, also revealed a slight improvement in views of the United States, although they remained largely negative.
Germany maintained the most positive ratings, while Iran, followed by Pakistan and Israel, still had the three worst. In the 2008 poll, people leaned toward saying China and Russia were having positive influences in the world. But positive opinions of China have slipped by six points to a world-wide average of 39 percent, with 40 percent (up seven) now holding a negative view.
In the last poll, respondents in 16 countries had a largely positive view of China, while five had a mainly negative view. Countries now are evenly split at 10 each in those camps. Pakistan was the next worst, with 53 percent negative and 17 percent positive views. Eighteen countries came down on the negative side.
Negative opinions of Russia's influence in the world are up eight points, meaning substantially more people have a negative view (42 percent) than a positive view (30 percent). Americans and Europeans have both grown more negative toward Russia, while Russians have become more negative toward the United States and the European Union. Russians' views towards Germany and Britain also worsened.
Opinions of the United States' influence on the world improved in Canada, Egypt, Ghana, India, Italy and Japan, the survey found. However, in 12 countries there was a predominantly negative view, twice as many as had a predominantly positive view. Opinions in China and Russia grew more negative, while those in Europe showed little change.
On average, positive views of the United States rose from 35 percent to 40 percent, but are still outweighed by negative views, down four at 43 percent. Iran had the worst average ratings, with 55 percent of all respondents - and 14 of the countries surveyed - saying it had a negative influence in the world. Israel attracted the largest number of countries giving it negative ratings: 19 out of 21. The poll was conducted before the recent Gaza war. The two exceptions were the United States, where opinions were predominantly positive, and Russia, where they were divided.
On average, 51 percent said the Jewish state had a negative influence while 21 percent said positive. Negative views were strongest in Egypt (87 percent), Turkey (70 percent) and Indonesia (60 percent).
The survey was conducted by pollsters Globesan, together with the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. "Our poll results suggest that China has much to learn about winning hearts and minds in the world," said GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller. "As for Russia, the more it acts like the old Soviet Union, the less people outside its borders seem to like it."
GlobeScan interviewed 13,575 citizens by telephone between November 21, 2008 and February 1. They were from Australia, Britain, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the United States.