In 1936, as China was embroiled in civil war and threatened by foreign invasion, American journalist Edgar Snow gained unprecedented direct access to the Communist Party of China (CPC) and for the first time introduced it to the world through his 1937 book Red Star Over China. Fast forward nine decades, a survey conducted by CGTN shows that among 11,521 respondents across 41 countries, "strong leadership" stands out as the deepest impression the CPC has made on them.
According to the survey, among evaluations of the CPC's role, "strong leadership" ranks first, followed by "positive force for maintaining global stability" and "representative of developing countries' interests."
In terms of age, respondents aged 18 to 24 are the most likely to choose "positive force for maintaining global stability" and "representative of developing countries' interests," while the proportion of respondents aged 35 and above who select "strong leadership" exceed the global average. When describing the CPC's image, "powerful," "forward-looking" and "efficient" are the top three options.
On governance performance, 57.4% of respondents from Global South countries give positive ratings, 22.8 percentage points higher than that in developed countries. Respondents from Pakistan, Nigeria and Vietnam register the most favorable overall assessments of the CPC's governance, with approval ratings exceeding 70%.
In specific governance areas, global respondents rate the CPC's performance highest in three fields: "improving infrastructure," "improving education" and "creating jobs." Evaluations from Global South respondents are above the global average across all areas, with "improving infrastructure" scoring the highest at 76.8%.
Among developed countries, US respondents give higher-than-average ratings to the CPC's performance in multiple governance areas, surpassing the developed-country average by more than 10 percentage points in "improving the natural environment" and "improving public health."
The survey was conducted by CGTN in collaboration with Renmin University of China through the New Era International Communication Research Institute, targeting respondents from around the world. The respondent countries cover major developed countries and Global South countries. All respondents are ordinary people aged 18 and above, and the samples are in line with the age and gender distribution of the national census of each country.