A comprehensive global study that surveyed tens of thousands of people in nearly 100 countries found that the vast majority see the United States as the biggest threat to the world.
At the same time, more and more nations say they prefer China over the US. China’s approval rating has risen dramatically in the Global South, in particular, where support for the US has plummeted.
These were the results of the 2026 Democracy Perception Index, an annual study conducted by a group called the Alliance of Democracies.
The Alliance of Democracies cannot in any way be accused of being “pro-China” or “anti-US”. The organization was founded by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former secretary general of NATO and right-wing ex-prime minister of Denmark.
It is also funded by a Who’s Who of European governmental bodies, major US corporations, US government-linked groups, and even Taiwan.
Some of the organizations that finance the Alliance of Democracies include Palantir, Microsoft, the EU’s European Endowment for Democracy, the right-wing Atlas Network, the US government-sponsored Freedom House, and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.
Despite these links, the group’s 2026 Democracy Perception Index came to some conclusions that will doubtless infuriate hawks and cold warriors in Washington.
The survey asked 23,968 respondents in 84 countries which nation they consider to be “the biggest threat to the world”.
Most people in 65 out of the 84 countries said the United States is the largest danger.
Another 10 countries (almost all in Europe) said Russia is the biggest threat. Seven (in West Asia and North Africa) said Israel. Israel said Iran. Japan said China.
The Democracy Perception Index likewise surveyed people in 97 nations and asked if they think the US should “have military bases in your country”.
Most people in 86 countries said no.
There was only clear support for US military bases in four out of the 97 surveyed nations: Israel, Poland, Puerto Rico, and South Korea.
Popular opinion of the United States has also declined precipitously, according to the survey.
The Democracy Perception Index found that the US has a net negative perception in 74% of the surveyed countries.
The US was only popular in a small handful of nations, like Israel, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, and Nigeria.
The US is most disliked in Europe, West Asia and North Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.
In contrast, the survey found that China is increasingly popular around the world.
Most people in 63 of the 83 surveyed countries said they prefer China over the US.
The report noted that the US has the highest level of support in Israel, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Ukraine — but it noted that these are “exceptions”.
China was especially popular in West Asia, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Moreover, the study asked people in 98 countries what they think about the US war against Iran. (The survey was conducted from 19 March to 21 April 2026, and the US unilaterally launched a war of aggression against Iran on 28 February.)
A plurality of nations, 41 of the 98, supported Iran. Only 28 said they side with the US. (The other 29 were divided or not clear.)
The Democracy Perception Index also asked people in 98 countries if they support Israel or Palestine.
A slightly majority, 51 of the 98, said they back Palestine. Just 17 countries prefer Israel.
Israel has its highest level of support in Ukraine, the US, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, and Panama.
Another question that the survey asked was if people think their country is “heading in the right direction”.
The number one nation, with the highest level of optimism, was China.
The only countries in the western hemisphere where a majority of people said yes were El Salvador and Nicaragua (which is governed by the revolutionary Sandinista Front).
Some of the lowest levels of optimism were in France, Puerto Rico, Lebanon, Germany, and Nigeria.
Jay
2026-06-07 at 10:52
The question is whether those preferences will be sustained when Trump is succeeded by a smoother-talking pol who prattles about democracy and human rights while continuing the US’s usual vicious imperialist agenda. That even worked on Hugo Chavez, who welcomed Obama with a gift of a book. My hope is that now China offers an alternative vision which is based on real achievement and that the world will choose that over the US’s propaganda and adept image-projection. But who knows — history shows that people are easily manipulated. And as Brian Berletic often says, China (and Russia) lag far behind the US when it comes to controlling other countries’ information space.
Jeff Quirk
2026-06-10 at 02:34
They certainly are manipulated in the UK by the horrible Farage. Partly because they aren’t interested reading past click bait headlines sadly. Especially in my home constituency of Makerfield right now
F. Whitman
2026-06-09 at 18:06
The question of “Can China Provide An Alternative To Liberal Democracy” will surely be answered in this century and the model of development that China has put forth will most likely be pursued by other countries in the following decades, if it proves to be sustainable. For now, it is undeniable that they can set goals and accomplish them.
Suburban ponzi scheme sprawl “development” in the United States, is centered around everyone driving in individual cars across massive geographical areas to work, shop, and do basic errands. This is unsustainable and will inevitably collapse, most likely when the petrodollar crumbles.
The State, as an independent entity, needs to invest in infrastructure to a sizable extent, and update city/suburban design in the United States to be at a human scale. Not through Public Private Partnerships, which is what it currently does, but through direct State investment and employment. Investing in this will create jobs, drive economic activity, and lead to a more productive way of structuring society.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-06-10 at 18:11
“World sees USA as biggest threat, and prefers China”
Newsflash: the USA is run by self serving war criminals and gangsters (Gen Medley Butler told us this in the 1930s)
In other breaking news, fire is hot and water is wet.
Of course you can bet the Epstein class bad hasbara will continue
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-06-12 at 14:01
*Smedley
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-06-13 at 15:52
Art Berman helps us understand the coming US energy / commodities crash.
https://www.youtube.com/live/_h6izbAULTo?si=e6kaX9TsHNH-qLsi
Berman is one of the least bad US oil commentators, nevertheless some of his statements are downright ignorant or garbage.
IGNORANT: He said he did not know why China suddenly reduced its total oil consumption from 16 million barrels per day to around 13mbpd from March 2026, and he felt this 3mbpd deficit was not sustainable.
Here is a presentation showing that before March this year, China had used 3mbpd of crude imports to refine into products for re-export, ie loss of those 3mbpd crude imports had ZERO effect on actual domestic Chinese oil consumption.
From around 18min 30sec
https://www.youtube.com/live/xTGwggbp8XE?si=72gGfhf3o48Ibijq
Furthermore the current 13mbpd oil for domestic Chinese consumption comes from Russia or Central Asia or China itself (hence immune to incursion in the Straits of Malacca), so this lower consumption is certainly sustainable for the next several years (ignoring Hubbert depletion which kills all oil production everywhere in the long term).
This means that China so far HAS NOT NEEDED TO TOUCH IT’S SPR AT ALL (1.4 billion barrels), in contrast to the USA which has been EXPORTING its <0.35 billion barrels SPR to keep global oil prices down. The US salt cavern storages are likely to physically collapse long before total US SPR depletion.
GARBAGE: around 47min Berman says the Iranian "regime" does not care about its people. BS. The Iranian government has been defending the Iranian people and Iranian civilisation against US and Israeli aggression since 1979 (especially the proxy US war via Iraq in the 1980s), while supporting healthcare, education, infrastructure etc.
However it is an indisputable fact that the US regime does not give a shit about US citizens, as openly stated recently by Trump that he does not care about the financial hardships of US citizens, and an avalanche of evidence that the US domestic infrastructure and social frameworks and productive economy (farmers etc) are disintegrating due to US governmental neglect / corruption.
Here is a mind-blowing clip describing the future of energy in China which does not even talk about Thorium, which I believe has much much greater prospects than Fusion.
https://youtu.be/YH78RYlso7k?si=IEwOlkyH-st5Hv10
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-06-13 at 21:29
When does Hoover Dam stop producing electricity? NOT when Lake Mead is completely dry, but when the water level is too low to support a pressure head to drive the turbines and/or the silt is so thick it clogs them.
When will the price of oil in the USA go ballistic? When there is a physical oil shortfall so undeniable that market manipulations no longer work.
NOT when the SPR (strategic petroleum reserve) of 350 million barrels falls to zero, but when it reaches perhaps half that, when due to technical reasons (eg collapse of the salt cavern walls due to dissolution by ingressed water etc), it is no longer possible to extract that oil.
That is when prices of everything will skyrocket, which may cause the entire US economy to crash.
Experts estimate this may occur within a couple of months.
July 4 2026 may not mark the 250th birthday of the USA so much as the funeral, the beginning of the end, of a genocidal settler colonial failed experiment founded on slavery. The client genocidal state of Israel will then collapse from lack of external support.
Oppressed people of the world will rejoice.
JonnyJames
2026-06-14 at 10:10
And the economic collapse of the Mother of the Evil Empire: the UK, (and the EU vassals) is happening in plain sight as well. Unfortunately, many innocents will suffer as usual.
But the “market” for paper oil (futures contracts) is stable. WTI and Brent are around $85/bbl as of Friday. The Ponzi racket known as “the stock market” is still near record territory. Elon the evil Oligarch is now a (paper) TRILLIONAIRE, the AI boom/bubble is raging. Nothing to worry about eh!
JonnyJames
2026-06-14 at 10:25
The world finally starts to see through the thick miasma cloud of US propaganda, MiniTrueMassMedia lies and BS, and Hollywood fantasy.
A quick summary of US foreign policy since WWII:
The US dropped atomic weapons on civilians in 1945
The US (with help from the UK et al) carpet bombed Korea until nothing higher than two bricks left standing. 100s of thousands were killed. (bombed them into the Stone Age)
The US (and UK sidekicks) orchestrated coups ejecting democratically elected governments in Iran (1953) Guatemala, and many other countries.
The US carpet-bombed Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, mass murdering 100s of thousands of innocents. The US used chemical weapons against civilians as well.
The US (with the UK) bombed and invaded Iraq, Afghanistan based on a “pack of lies”. Many hundreds of thousands of civilians died as a direct result.
The US used CIA “black sites” to conduct torture, and even normalized torture at “Gitmo” (Guantanamo Bay)
The US (with support from the UK and EU vassals) finances, provides the latest weapons, provides political protection, and fully enables Israel to commit GENOCIDE in Palestine and Lebanon.
The US (with the UK and EU vassals) puts the world on the brink of nuclear war by attacking Russia and arming and aiding the notoriously corrupt Ukrainian puppet regime.
The US puts the world on the brink of economic crisis and global nuclear war by illegally attacking Iran, bombing a school full of little girls and brazenly targeting civilians.
The most evil regime since WWII. should be viewed as the Great Satan indeed.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-06-17 at 15:51
Orchestrated by psychopaths like Allen Dulles
https://youtu.be/v8_FRdyeK00?si=1a1C2iv0R0P18ELe
along with his brother John Foster Dulles, both lawyers for Sullivan and Cromwell of Wall Street
How do you pronounce “Dulles”?
Dull, Duller, Dulles.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-06-15 at 20:35
Despite ongoing Hormuz constraints, China has not touched its 1.4billion barrel SPR and has in fact resumed exports of distillates eg diesel, to third countries. China makes its fertiliser and many “petro”chemicals from coal which, along with electrification of much of its transport and other measures, enabled it to be unaffected by Hormuz issues.
https://youtu.be/0OsczE23hyo?si=J7qgqemd9rkliLTQ
BTW the USA signing the recent MOU with Iran was almost certainly another ploy by Trump to calm the stockmarket and oil prices at the beginning of the work week, so that he and his cronies can make billions from insider trading, before the rabid dog Israel is once again let off the US leash to bomb all and sundry.
The YankeeZioNazis are not agreement capable and ALWAYS violate all their promises/agreements/ceasefires.
In other “water is wet, fire is hot” news, the recent SpaceX IPO (incorporating X/twitter, X.A.I. (Grok) and other money hemorrhaging enterprises) was a successful ploy by fElon skuM to suck up billions of dumb money from the proletariat to pay off his debts and skyrocket his paper wealth. The working poor of the USA had no say in the fact that their retirement funds, 401k etc pumped money into this obscene scam.
https://youtu.be/Dj-hd3l4dSo?si=eo-mBh7Kke4eawpR
https://youtu.be/8FjrSNSGO1A?si=s8qb5l4lmFaUV5Pb
JonnyJames
2026-06-17 at 14:10
Thanks for all the links EAB!
JonnyJames
2026-06-17 at 14:17
And to add: the US oligarchy: Ellisons, Bezos, Gates, Marc Suckerbird, fElon skuM and the gang are (with the help of Corrupt Congress Crooks) engaging in kleptocracy: they are awarded 10s of billions in US gov contracts with obscene margins built in. The resultant polarization is a recipe for socio-economic collapse, coming to a town near you!
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-06-17 at 15:43
But hey, look!!
There’s cage fighting at the White House!!
Bread and circuses without the bread!!
No butter either, just guns.
😭🤮😭🤮😭🤮
JonnyJames
2026-06-17 at 16:49
LOL
History heavily rhymes: The Insane Emperor has Colosseum-like blood sport spectacle at the WH. Builds (like Nero) a Domus Aurea ballroom/bunker with public funds, names everything after himself, has a (like Nero) a gilded Colossus statue of himself built. (Like Nero) He abuses his power to steal public funds and his family/cronies steal public lands as well. (Like Commodus) He fancies himself a god, and then Jesus. Can’t make this stuff up. The truth is more tragically entertaining than fiction.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-06-17 at 18:42
Iran just DEFEATED the USA big time…
and Trump just swallowed the biggest TACO of all time!!
https://www.youtube.com/live/pDVwed9QDRk?si=RsuKlxJEEGGW7wRQ
Try not to choke on your TACO, Trump!
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-06-22 at 19:38
Trump signed his surrender document in Versailles, completely ignorant of the history of a previous surrender document signed there.
You could not make this stuff up!!
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-06-21 at 19:44
I am somewhat gratified that at least a few analysts understand the economic/food catastrophe the Western (and poor) world will soon be facing.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Wci735sTKeM?si=Ay7Fkb3HJJv4hoWK
1. Drawdown and even export of SPRs has led to artificial suppression of global oil prices and prevented demand destruction in the USA and Europe, leading to “business as usual” high consumption by dumbass oblivious consumers.
2.SPRs, in particular the US SPR, will be inaccessible well before reaching bottom, due collapse of the salt cavern walls.
3.This abrupt curtailment will lead to oil prices at the pump abruptly skyrocketing, much worse than if prior price realities had, in a truly free market, imposed consumer rationing previously (through demand destruction of discretionary consumption).
4.The USA will be forced to choose between allocating the middle distillates (from imported crude*) either to diesel, to enable the domestic economy to operate on life support (grain harvesting, food distribution etc), or towards jet fuel, to pursue more war. The latter course will lead to starvation at home. Given the stupidity, venality, malice and sadism of the US Deep State, they are likely to choose guns over butter.
The above also applies to Europe, only worse.
Russia and China will not be affected.
Poor countries like the Philippines, India, Bangladesh etc will face mass starvation, they will be outbid on the world market for petroleum by the richer countries.
*my comment: diesel CANNOT be made from US shale LTO and barely any jet/kerosene fraction can be distilled out of it.