Foreign Policy reports that global opinions on whether China influence in the world is positive or negative took a sharp turn last year, with opinions of the country sliding in just about every country surveyed.:

Russia and China both revealed their harsher sides in 2005, and they seem to have paid a price in popularity. China’s hard-line anti-secession law targeting Taiwan, its fueling of anti-Japan sentiments, and an internal crackdown on civil society are likely to have contributed to its drop in the polls. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s growing authoritarianism at home and opposition to democracy movements in Russia’s “near abroad” sent its popularity sharply downward. The good news? Russians and Chinese are still quite fond of themselves

(via China Challenges)

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