China’s reputation in the West has deteriorated radically since President Xi Jinping took office ten years ago. Human rights violations and military threats also lead to uncertainty and criticism in Germany. Meanwhile, China’s government is countering with well-known allegations.
China’s reputation in Germany, the USA and other developed countries has drastically deteriorated under state and party leader Xi Jinping. According to surveys and data analyzes published by the US-based opinion research institute Pew, opinion of China has “become steeply more negative” in the industrialized countries during Xi Jinping’s ten-year tenure. There are concerns about China’s human rights policy, military power and economy.
China’s government rejected the findings: Xi Jinping enjoys “great recognition in the world community”. At the Chinese Communist Party Congress, which takes place every five years and begins in Beijing on October 16, Xi Jinping wants to be confirmed as party leader for an unprecedented third term. In November, the Central Committee had practically given the 69-year-old a mandate for a permanent, possibly lifelong leadership role – as the first party leader since the revolutionary and state founder Mao Tsetung.
The number of Germans surveyed who have “no trust” in Xi Jinping has risen from 62 percent eight years ago to 79 percent. Above all, however, the image of China in Germany has radically deteriorated: while in 2005 only 37 percent of Germans had a negative opinion of China, the number has since doubled to 74 percent. But the Pew researchers emphasized that unfavorable opinions in the polls generally relate to China’s leadership, its government or economy, but not the Chinese people. The bad image of China is therefore also affected by views that China did not deal well with the outbreak of the corona pandemic. According to the researchers, these are not the only driving factor.
The first Covid-19 infections were discovered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 before spreading around the world. As the researchers reported, there is a widespread sense that China’s power on the world stage is increasing: “Along with its growing influence, there is also a sense that China is a growing threat.” In the 19 countries where polls were taken in 2022, an average of 72 percent considered China’s military might a serious problem, including 37 percent who even spoke of a “very serious problem,” the Pew researchers reported.
More than China’s military power or strong economic power, however, the respondents were concerned that China violated human rights. Around half or more of respondents in 10 out of 19 countries described human rights abuses as a serious problem. In Germany, 85 percent (2021) of those surveyed found that China does not respect human rights. It was described as a “very serious problem” by 54 percent in Germany in 2022 – ahead of military power (44 percent) or economic competition from China (31 percent).
China’s government denied the findings. Xi Jinping not only enjoys great recognition in the world, but also strong support from China’s 1.4 billion people, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin in Beijing. The polls were conducted “in a small number of developed countries” and did not represent the views of developing countries, which make up almost 90 percent of the world’s population. “These polls can only show that some Western media have long looked at China through a gray filter, seriously misleading the public and sowing discord in their perception.”
