Global survey shows China’s image steadily improving

BEIJING: China’s image is steadily improving, with international appreciation of its performance in domestic and foreign affairs, economic influence and cultural and high-tech hallmarks, according to a survey.

The country scored 6.22 out of 10 for its overall image, maintaining a slight upward curve in recent years, said the 2016-2017 China National Image Global Survey, which has been conducted annually since 2011.

Jointly conducted by the Centre for International Communication Studies under the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, and Kantar Millward Brown and Lightspeed, the survey interviewed people in 22 countries, with 500 respondents from each country.

China scored 6.5 and 6.2 points for its performance in global and domestic affairs, respectively.

The three countries whose China score saw the biggest rise were Italy, Canada and the UK, though developing countries had a better impression of China generally.

People aged 18 to 35 had the best impression of China.

In terms of influence, China ranked the second to the United States, followed by Russia, Germany and the UK.

China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” is recognised by a growing number of people worldwide, according to the survey.

Eighteen per cent of the overseas respondents had heard of the “Silk Road economic belt” and the “21st century maritime Silk Road”, and 40% in Indonesia, India and other countries situated along the routes.

Internationally, people are generally positive about China’s future, according to the report.

Those in developed and developing countries believe that China’s international status and global influence will continue to grow, and that China will lead the new round of globalisation and contribute more to global governance.

Among the 11,000 surveyed, 33% thought that China would become the world’s largest economy, a large increase on previous years.

However, 36% say China still faces challenges such as economic disparity and environmental pollution.

The survey shows that 28% of foreigners plan to study, work or travel in China in the next three years.

As for the most popular cities among foreigners, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai remain the top three, but regions that respondents plan to visit are more various than in the previous survey in 2015.

To pick a representative of Chinese culture, 52% chose Chinese cuisine, with almost 80% saying they had tried it, 72% of whom spoke highly of it.

Chinese medicine and martial arts also stood out as significant representatives of Chinese culture, picked by 47% and 44%, respectively. About 64% of the respondents who said they had tried Chinese medicine gave it the thumbs up.