Swedes Like China's Dictatorship More Than the USA – What Is Happening?

A growing number of Swedes view China more favorably than the United States, a startling shift that the author attributes largely to Donald Trump's "America First" agenda. Despite China's status as a brutal dictatorship, responsible for interning over a million Uyghurs and engaging in espionage and economic coercion, more Swedes now express trust in its leader, Xi Jinping, to manage world affairs than in Donald Trump.

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More Swedes have a positive view of China than of the USA.

This perception is particularly concerning given China's human rights abuses, intellectual property theft, and aggressive stance towards Taiwan. Swedish security services continue to identify China as a long-term threat to economic security. The author questions how such a regime can gain favor, suggesting the increase in positive sentiment towards China is marginal, but the decline in positive views of the U.S. is dramatic.

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President has excelled in the art of making friends into enemies.

Over the past three years, the percentage of Swedes with a positive view of the United States has plummeted from 55% to 19%. Trump's presidency is cited as the primary reason for this decline. His initiation of global trade wars, his questioning of the NATO alliance, and his perceived abandonment of Ukraine have alienated traditional allies. His administration's actions, such as the threats to acquire Greenland and the handling of domestic issues like immigration enforcement, have further damaged the U.S. image abroad.

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China is therefore a brutal dictatorship that has imprisoned over a million people from the minority group Uyghurs in internment camps.

Meanwhile, China has strategically positioned itself as a stable and predictable trading partner. The author notes that this pattern of declining trust in the U.S. and increasing favorability towards China is evident in many countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center. The author concludes that while it's understandable why Swedes might distrust the U.S. and its leader, this development is tragic, especially if Trump's actions were intended to strengthen the U.S. position against China, marking it as a significant "own goal."

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In three years, the proportion of Swedes who view the great country to the west positively has decreased from 55 percent to 19.