As US President Donald Trump approaches the midpoint of his second term, a new poll suggests that more Canadians have a positive view of China than of the United States.
The latest poll conducted by the Pew Research Center It shows that two in five (44%) Canadians participating in the survey have a positive view of China, while only one in three (33%) said the same about the United States.
Last year, Canadians were found to be “equally” supportive of both countries.
Canada has for years been part of an international effort to condemn China for human rights abuses against the Uighur people, a largely Muslim minority that has faced a long-term campaign of detention, and later imprisonment, by China.
There are about 12 million Uyghurs living in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The United Nations estimated in 2018 that up to one million Uyghurs were being held in what amounted to a “huge concentration camp shrouded in secrecy.”
Canada imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials and one entity on March 22, 2021, with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying there were “gross and systematic human rights violations” occurring.
China’s arbitrary detention of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig for nearly three years also torpedoed diplomatic relations between the two countries. At the time of their release, 115 Canadians remained in detention in Chinese prisons, Global Affairs Canada told Global News on September 26, 2021.
China also executed four Canadian citizens in early 2025. Beijing said at the time that the four were dual citizens who had been tried on drug charges.
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Abbotsford, British Columbia, native Robert Schellenberg has been on death row in China since 2019.
The federal government said at the time it “strongly condemned” the executions, but Prime Minister Mark Carney has repeatedly reached out to Beijing to improve relations and increase trade since taking office last year.
Canada is not the only country that prefers China over the United States
The poll asked 1,020 Canadians by phone between February 8 and May 13 about their views on both the United States and China, including respondents’ positions on foreign policy, evaluation of each country’s heads of state and respect for personal freedoms.
The Canadians surveyed were not the only ones to come to the conclusion that they prefer China over the United States, as the poll noted that “China is now viewed more favorably than the United States in most of the 36 countries surveyed.”
The survey stated: “During the first two years of Trump’s second term, the US president’s ratings deteriorated significantly. While many people still lack confidence in (Chinese President) Xi (Jinping), positive opinions of him have become more widespread, and in general they now say they trust Xi more than Trump.”
The United States is viewed more favorably than China in only six countries, including four in the Asia-Pacific region: India, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea.
Tensions between the United States and Canada have been fraught since the US administration’s tariffs on Canada in early 2025 and repeated threats by Trump to make Canada a “51st country.”
The letter sent by US Republicans to Carney on Wednesday regarding smoke from Canadian wildfires flowing into the United States states that “sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable catastrophe from crossing into another nation’s airspace has not been met.”
Carney visited China in January and met with Xi. Carney’s office said his visit focused on “engaging in the areas of trade, energy, agriculture and international security.”
This is the first visit by a Canadian Prime Minister to China in eight years.
As a result, Canada and China reached an initial trade agreement in which Beijing agreed to reduce or eliminate some tariffs on Canadian agricultural products and Canada agreed to reduce tariffs on some Chinese electric vehicles.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also made a three-day visit to Ottawa in June that included a meeting with Carney.
The last time Wang was in Ottawa 10 years ago, he fired back at a Canadian reporter who asked about human rights in China at a joint news conference with then-Foreign Minister Stephane Dion.
During a visit in June, Foreign Minister Anita Anand said economic relations between Canada and China were “important.”
“We are committed to growing this relationship responsibly with the goal of increasing exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030, while protecting Canada’s economic and national security interests and values,” she said at the time.
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