As China moves forward, America turns backward and inward

If one ever had any doubt about the latest Pew Research Center survey showing that China is perceived more favourably than the US in many parts of the world now, those doubts should have vanished after hearing the two recent speeches by President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping respectively. 

During a prime-time national address on 16 July 2026, Trump accused “foreign adversaries”, particularly China, of meddling in the US presidential election in 2020 which he lost. It is not the first time that Trump made such claims that have been refuted by the US intelligence community. Trump also alleged that China bribed US journalists to write negative stories about his administration. China’s official response was swift and firm: Trump’s accusations are “fabricated, slanderous, and groundless.”

Just moments after Trump’s talk, Xi spoke at the 2026 World AI Conference in Shanghai, promoting an open approach to AI development and advocating a just and equitable global AI governance system. He emphasised the need for extensive international cooperation to help Global South countries with capacity building to bridge the AI and digital divides and prevent creating new injustice in AI.  

Trump taking the US backward

Even a casual observer can tell the sharp contrast: China keeps moving forward as a confident global leader, while an insecure Trump is taking America backward.

According to the Pew study, in 25 out of the 36 countries and territories surveyed in spring 2026, China is viewed more positively than the US. And more people have confidence in Xi than in Trump now. It marks the first time in the roughly 20 years Pew has been tracking global opinions that China has been viewed more positively than the US, said Laura Silver, associate director of Pew’s Global Attitudes Research and one of the researchers for this study.  

A powerful and successful nation that has inspired people around the world for generations, the United States of America just celebrated its remarkable 250 years of independence. However, America is gradually losing its global appeal and needs to be revitalised. “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) captures Trump’s ambitions, but what the Trump administration has been doing may accelerate America’s decline.  

To be sure, the US will remain the strongest nation with the largest economy and a formidable military for the foreseeable future. However, as other powers continue to catch up economically and technologically, the US is no longer the unmatched dominant superpower it used to be, and America’s soft power has also tumbled in recent years. Unprovoked military attacks on Venezuela and Iran and indiscriminate support for Israel’s genocidal activities in Gaza have further alienated the US from the international community, including many of its allies and friends.

America lacks a strategy

The US faces a bigger problem: lack of a viable strategy to stay ahead in a highly competitive, multipolar world today. And this lack of strategy is partially caused by America’s loss of self-confidence and misinformed view of the world, especially of contemporary China.

US-China rivalry is a dominant feature of 21st century international relations. The two countries have been struggling to deal with the global power transition as China continues to narrow the development gap with the US.

It is unfair to blame Trump for all the problems and challenges the US is facing now. It is also unfair to blame Trump alone for the deterioration of US-China relations in the past decade. In fact, after returning to the White House for his second term, Trump has been working with Xi to stabilise the bilateral relationship. Trump even travelled to Beijing in May 2026 in the midst of the US-Israel war with Iran to seek “a constructive relationship of strategic stability” with China. 

However, the relative calm in the relationship now is largely built upon Trump’s personal ties with Xi; it has not been institutionalised and therefore remains fragile. China can easily become a scapegoat if the Republican Party performs poorly in the November 2026 US mid-term election, leading to renewed tensions in the bilateral relationship. 

Still a free market economy?

The US government has restricted Chinese investment and erected obstacles to Chinese exports to the US market, including electric vehicles (EVs). Smart EVs and other advanced electronic products from Chinese companies such as Huawei, Xiaomi and NIO are banned in the US on overused national security grounds. One wonders if an increasingly protectionist America is still a free market economy. One also wonders why America would not welcome Chinese construction businesses that are experienced and ready to help fix its dilapidated infrastructure.

Trump is widely viewed as an anti-immigrant president. Most recently, the Trump administration further tightened its visa policies towards foreign students and journalists. Student visas would be capped at four years, while journalists would be limited to a 240-day stay, with Chinese journalists limited to 90 days. Clearly, America is no longer the warm and welcoming nation that welcomes global talent. This is another example of America going backwards and inward, losing confidence, and self-destroying its international image.

America also lacks a clear vision for the future. The first Trump administration terminated Fulbright programs in China, cut federal funding for research and forced public institutions to curtail educational exchanges with China — poor decisions that were not corrected by the Biden administration.

Paltry number of US students in China  

The number of American students studying in China peaked in 2011-12 with about 15,000. It significantly dropped due to Covid and anti-China policies and rhetoric of the first Trump administration, with the lowest only about 200 in 2021-22. The number has ticked up a little, but it is still under 2,000 now. In comparison, over 23,000 American students studied in the UK in 2024-25.  

One of the reasons that some American students are reluctant to study in China is that it could be harder for them to get security clearance to work in the US government. Instead of encouraging these students to study in China, the US government has made it more difficult. The consequence is that the next generation of America’s China policy makers might be a group of people who do not speak Mandarin, who have never travelled to China, and whose knowledge of China is hopelessly outdated and shallow.  

Less open, more insecure, with myopic world views, the US is simply unprepared to compete with its arch-rival, except by resorting to knee-jerk reactions to push back against Beijing’s every move while restricting exchanges with China.

America can and should do better.

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