U.S. wins global leadership approval over China when a Democrat is president, Gallup analysis shows

Most countriesprefer alignment with the U.S. over China when the White House is occupied by a Democrat, according to Gallup poll data going back to 2007. 

"Significantly more countries seem to prefer U.S. leadership over Chinese leadership, at least under Democratic administrations," Gallup said in a report released Monday, adding that a Republican executive comes with a "net approval disadvantage."

Gallup's report showed that in 2023, nearly half (48%) of the world's countries leaned towards the U.S. as opposed to China — which was favored by 21% of the more than 130 countries polled. Over a fifth of the nations were found to be "strongly aligned" with the U.S., the highest rate since 2009.

Throughout most of the Trump administration, a larger share of countries had favored China, which changed as Democrat Joe Biden took office at the start of 2021.

"The magnitude of these swings comes into stark focus when one compares country alignments across years," the global analytics and advisory firm said, citing similar party-related trends under the George Bush and Barack Obama administrations. 

The trend outlined by Gallup suggests that America's influence over the world could be dependent on the tightly contested upcoming presidential rematch between Biden and Trump. 

Leading up to the election, both candidates have signaled a tough stance on China, with a growing number of Americans seeing Beijing as an enemy rather than a competitor or partner, according to a Pew Research poll released last week.

According to Gallup, the "bounce-back" under the Biden administration suggests that the U.S.'s net approval advantage over China is resilient, especially when accounting for more strongly aligned groups. 

Though China made short-term