Other institutions have carried out similar research in recent years.

Polling company Gallup found that China surpassed the US in global approval ratings last year , with the widest gap recorded in China's favour in 20 years.

But US think tank Asia Society's yearly Global Public Opinion on China survey suggested that China's image, which dipped during the pandemic, had only made a modest recovery since.

Chong Ja Ian, a non-resident scholar with Carnegie China, said Pew's latest results were not surprising.

"The volatility of US policy, including the use of force and the resulting economic harm, has put many on edge," he noted.

Pew's survey began not long after Trump intensified his rhetoric about annexing Greenland and the US captured Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro. The US also launched its war with Iran during the polling period.

Dr Chong added that "whether China is absolutely popular is an open question, but it seems like a more predictable entity at present. Beijing has also been working hard to burnish its image", especially in developing countries.

On the disparity between the high favourability scores for China and the relatively lower confidence in Xi, Dr Chong said that while China "may be more predictable and therefore makes some more comfortable, it does not take away from the fact that Xi is a major authoritarian figure".

He pointed out that under Xi's leadership China had "adopted more assertive and expansive claims, including more insistence that others align with its view of the world" - and questions remained about the treatment of minorities in the country.

"I suppose people attribute the more coercive and economically less helpful policies to Xi personally but associate more positive elements, such as technological advances, to China more broadly."