A new poll by the Pew Research Center, released on Wednesday, showed that China is now viewed more positively than the US in many countries around the world, marking the first time the organization has recorded such results in the roughly 20 years Pew has been tracking global opinions.

A Chinese expert said on Thursday that compared with the US, China has long upheld a steady foreign policy characterized by openness and friendly engagement through a wide range of cross-border cooperation projects that deliver shared benefits to all participating sides, which arguably stands as the core reason behind the rising global favorability toward China.

According to the official website of Pew Research Center, the latest results are based on surveys of 42,151 adults conducted from February 8 to May 13. In most of the 36 countries surveyed, more people have a favorable view of China than of the US.

Countries that now view China more positively than the US include longtime US allies such as Britain, Canada, France and Germany. People in all four viewed the US more favorably than or just as favorably as China last year, the Washington Post reported, citing Pew’s data.

The US is viewed more positively than China in just six countries, including four in the Asia-Pacific region: India, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea, the center’s data showed.

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 on the study, AP reported. “Some of the views that we see of the US are at or near historic lows,” said Silver, as reported by the Washington Post.

Other institutions have carried out similar research in recent years. According to BBC, polling company Gallup found that China surpassed the US in global approval ratings last year, with the widest gap recorded in China's favor in 20 years.

Sun Xihui, an associate research fellow with the National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday that China has maintained a consistent foreign policy anchored in non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, openness and win-win collaboration. This policy consistency arguably serves as the fundamental driver behind increasingly global favorability toward China.

Some Western media outlets have highlighted the volatility of US policy and its negative impact regarding the declining perceptions of the US and the growing favorability toward China. AP reported that the remarkable shift is driven in part by tensions between the US and its allies, while BBC quoted Chong Ja Ian, a non-resident scholar with Carnegie China, saying that “the volatility of US policy, including the use of force and the resulting economic harm, has put many on edge.”

The survey also showed that on foreign policy, respondents in 17 middle-income nations raised more concerns about the US than China. More in those countries see China as “a reliable partner” than the US and say China contributes “a great deal” or a “fair amount” to peace and stability around the world more than the US, per Bloomberg.

Sun noted that heightened concerns about the US compared to China among people in middle-income nations can likely be traced to their respective development realities. “These countries rely heavily on affordable, quality goods to advance economic growth and living standards — a demand China is well-positioned to meet, fostering deeper ties between these economies and Chinese goods and markets,” he said.

Specifically, the Pew survey found that across Latin America, views of China are now slightly more positive than views of the US, due largely to worsening views of the US, and that people are much more likely to say the US interferes in the affairs of other countries than they are to say the same of China.

Sun noted that repeated US intervention in regional affairs appears to have eroded its standing there. China, meanwhile, has stuck to a consistent framework for cooperation with Latin American nations, which has yielded a host of positive outcomes. “Steady, predictable cooperation with China seems to bring real improvements to livelihoods and local development across Latin America, which likely contributes to residents there viewing China more positively than the US,” he said.