African Public Opinion on China and the US

The Afrobarometer asked a public opinion question on China in 2008 but I don’t think they’ve repeated it. In that survey, 47% thought that China “helped somewhat” or “helped a lot” while 30% answered “don’t know”. For the US, 54% thought we “helped somewhat” or “helped a lot” and 29% didn’t have a response.

The BBC regularly asks some comparative questions on China, although their coverage of African countries is spotty. Their survey in 2011 had two African countries, Kenya and Nigeria, and both had a positive view of the impact of China’s growth on their country: Kenya (77% positive), Nigeria (82%). In 2012, the survey showed positive ratings of 78% for China in Nigeria, 68% in Ghana, and 58% in Kenya. Their 2014 survey showed a decline for public opinion on China in Kenya (65%), stable in Ghana (67%) and a bit of a positive jump for Nigeria (85%).

The Pew Charitable Trust also includes some questions on China/US public opinion.

I think the most recent Pew survey took place in the Spring of 2013. The table from the US/China question is reproduced to the right. On average, 65 percent of Africans viewed China favorably, and 73 percent the US.

Earlier Pew surveys on this topic only included one country, Kenya. In 2010, 94% of Kenyans surveyed viewed the US favorably and in 2011, 83%. In the table on the right we can see a favorable opinion for the US of 81%,  In 2010, 86% of Kenyan’s surveyed viewed China favorably, and in 2011, this dropped to 71% and in 2013, it rose to 78%.