West’s chauvinism knows no bounds

Should objectivity matter in a survey? If a truthful gauging of opinion is sought then the answer is yes. Should objectivity matter when drawing up rankings? Again the answer is yes if meaningful comparisons are to be made. But a recent survey by Pew Research Center and rankings compiled by Bloomberg have opted for subjectivity in order to arrive at the conclusions they want.

Bloomberg’s ranking of the COVID-19 resilience of countries incredibly put the United States top and China in the eighth place. The Pew survey of 18,850 people in 17 advanced economies concluded that China’s international image was broadly negative while positive views of the US had rebounded.

To ensure the US secured the top spot, Bloomberg skewed the criteria for evaluating how a country performed in response to the pandemic. It says that the ability to essentially turn back the clock and return to pre-pandemic times is taking on an even greater significance, and an economy’s openness to the world is the most important element.

With such a bias, Bloomberg was able to design the criteria for the rankings in such a manner that the US would be sure to be No 1.

In the same way, the Pew survey was conducted in only 17 advanced economies about the “global” views of the world’s largest and second-largest economies. The designer of the survey knew in advance the conclusion to be obtained.

That the US reported more than 20,000 new infections on Monday flies in the face of the Bloomberg survey. Both the largest accumulated cases among all countries and the repeated rebounding of the daily cases suggest what a terrible job the US has done and is doing in its response to the pandemic.

Even as far as COVID-19 resilience is concerned, how can a country whose failure to contain the spread of the virus has resulted in the largest number of deaths of all countries have the nerve to say that it is the most resilient country in the world in responding to the pandemic?

For the Pew survey, it cannot be said to be objective or representative. Its conclusion that “China’s international image remains broadly negative”, only applies among 18,850 people surveyed in the 17 advanced economies. And most of these economies such as the so-called five eyes have been working hard to foster a negative impression of China.

It is the chauvinism of the West that holds the 15 developed economies — since two went against the grain of the poll — can represent the nearly 200 member countries of the United Nations. It is colonialization of global public opinion to report the views of just more than 18,000 surveyed in these 17 economies as being representative of the whole world.

Bloomberg and Pew Research Center should be ashamed of themselves.