Anti-American attitudes increasing

[wushijiao]

Here is a good article from the Economist:

There are one or two signs of that in a new poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, the gold standard of international opinion surveys. Positive impressions of America have risen a few points in France, Germany and Russia since 2004, and have surged in India (since 2002) and Indonesia (2003). Against that, opinions of America are still well below their levels in 2000—and in most places they are still basically negative (see chart).

and also, interestingly:

So it is all the more sobering to find considerable levels of hostility when people compare America with other countries, or express their views about Americans in general, not Mr Bush in particular. Pew asked its respondents to give favourability ratings to five nations: America, France, Germany, Japan and China. America came bottom of everyone's list everywhere except in India, where it was top, Poland, where it was in the middle and China, where it came above Japan. The British view France and Germany more favourably than they do America. China is more popular than the United States throughout Europe. (Germany won this particular beauty contest, by the way, scoring highly almost everywhere except Germany itself.)

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4105223

[bhchao]

This is old news. Given Bush's dismal foreign policy record, it comes as no surprise that so many countries see America in a negative light.

Bush's own approval rating among Americans is the lowest of his presidency, 45% in a poll released last month.

[wushijiao]

This is old news. Given Bush's dismal foreign policy record, it comes as no surprise that so many countries see America in a negative light.

Bush's foreign policy is generally not good and certianly not very sensitive to countries that disagree. But perhaps anti-American attitudes are hardening beyond just disliking W and his policies.

[bhchao]

But perhaps anti-American attitudes are hardening beyond just disliking W and his policies.

That is true.

This link provides some detail on Europe's perception of China. http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/BBCworldpoll/030505/html/bbcpoll3.html

Europeans view China's growing economic strength as positive, but view growing Chinese military strength as negative.

[wushijiao]

I've seen that poll before. It's pretty interesting.

The Lebanon numbers make me wonder if more polling had been done in the Middle East and Africa, what would the results be? Is China succeeding at being non-offensive to the big powers while also portraying itself as fighting on behalf of the developing world? It seems so.