United States or China as world leader? Asians overwhelmingly prefer the US, Pew study finds

Poll shows that Beijing’s record on human rights affects opinions about Chinese leadership, with Asians in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia having a dimmer view of the country

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American global leadership is vastly preferred to that of China, a new poll finds. Photo: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Published: 3:21am, 13 Oct 2018Updated: 11:39pm, 13 Oct 2018

When it comes to global leadership, Asia prefers the United States over China by a wide margin, according to data compiled by the Pew Research Centre.

When asked if it would be better for the world to have the US or China as the leading global power, 73 per cent of Asian respondents – represented by polls taken in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia – favoured the United States, versus 12 per cent for China, the new research showed.

The 25-country median – which includes Germany, Canada and Brazil – was 63 per cent for the US and 19 per cent for China, according to the research, which was presented by Bruce Stokes, Pew Research’s director of global economic attitudes, at an Asia Society event in New York.

Results of the recent US versus China leadership poll. Source: Pew Research Centre

Polls were not conducted in the US or China.

“This is fascinating for me,” former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who is now president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said in a discussion with Stokes.