Gallup has compiled approval ratings of the main world powers since 2007. It reflects the attitudes of respondents from 135 countries towards the US, China, Germany and Russia.

The US was the world leader in public approval between 2009 and 2016. However, after Donald Trump took office, the country’s indices began to drop sharply. In 2017, it reached a record low of 30%. Subsequently, it rose slightly but still remains at 33%, according to the current survey.

The funny thing is that among the traditional allies of the US, the approval rating of your Administration is the lowest. In Europe, the leadership of the United States are approved on average by 24% and in Australia by 23%. In some countries, such as Germany, the approval rating of the US authorities does not exceed 12%.

The United States is more popular with African residents. In Africa, 52% of respondents are in favour of the US Administration. However, the US is losing popularity in this region as well. In 2009, 85% of African respondents approved the activities of the President and US authorities.

China, by contrast, is showing a slow but steady increase in popularity among the international community. While in 2009 only 25% of respondents approved their actions, in 2015 the figure exceeded 30%. The results of the current survey show that 32% of respondents approve of China’s activities, just 1% less than the US index.

This year 2020, the US position in the world is largely due to its response to the COVID-19 outbreak. As a world leader, the United States “should have coordinated and led the global fight against the pandemic.” However, he failed to respond adequately to the spread of the virus even in his own country, said Cui Lei, a scientist at the US Research Center of the Institute of International Relations of China.

“The United States has been too slow to respond to the coronavirus. It did not take hard measures to revive the economy. And the epidemic is not yet under control,” said the analyst.

Instead of leading the fight, “the United States began to transfer responsibility to others and even stopped financing WHO,” he stressed.

According to the Chinese expert, all this causes the role of the US’s global leader to decline. Another factor that influenced the popularity of the American authorities was the protests against racial discrimination in the North American country, he added.

Meanwhile, Germany, which leads the approval ranking, showed good results in the fight against COVID-19, Cui Lei noted.

“Germany not only actively helped fight infection in Europe, but also provided financial support to WHO to promote international cooperation in the fight against the epidemic.”

German political scientist Gunnar Jutte also opined that it was the coronavirus crisis that influenced the survey results. Germany’s popularity is largely due to the timely actions of the German country’s authorities, the analyst said.

“When there are disasters or critical situations, Merkel is particularly effective. … I think the fact that she was a physicist has also played an important role. Scientists better understand the threat of a pandemic,” he added.

According to Cui Lei, the progress of each country in the fight against the pandemic becomes a test for the world community, determines its capabilities and potential. And future indices will show them.

“I think it will all depend on how countries cope with the epidemic and how they engage in international cooperation. If the United States, for example, takes steps to further separate itself from the world community, its leadership will weaken. Without However, if China becomes more actively involved in international cooperation, the ranking results may change again.”

The highest daily number of new infected a day in China in recent months was 61 people compared to more than 70,000 new cases daily in the US.