China's national image continues to improve: Survey

BEIJING - A global survey published Tuesday showed that the overall impression of China's image continues to improve.

A total of 11,000 respondents from 22 countries participated in the 2019 China National Image Global Survey, which was jointly conducted by the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies and London-headquartered consulting company Kantar Group.

Compared with previous surveys, the 2019 version added topics including China's advocacy of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations and the general impression of China's national image since the founding of New China 70 years ago, covering politics, diplomacy, economy, culture, science and technology, among other fields.

China's overall image kept improving internationally in 2019, said the report, adding that over 60 percent of overseas respondents believed that China's national image kept getting better over the past 70 years, affirming the country's achievements over the period.

According to the report, the overseas respondents expected China to focus on building its image as a "contributor to global development," a "country with a rich history in the East," and "a major responsible nation."

The report showed that overseas respondents expected China to play a bigger role in the fields of economy and science and technology, with 68 percent making a positive assessment of the country's technological innovation capacity.

High-speed rail remains China's best-known technological achievement among people overseas, and Chinese cuisine, traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts are considered to best represent Chinese culture, according to the report.

More than 70 percent of the overseas respondents recognized China's advocacy of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, and more than 60 percent considered the country's proposal for building a community with a shared future for humanity as a positive step for individuals, countries and global governance, it said.

The survey also showed that the Belt and Road Initiative was the most popular of all proposals by China.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has brought up new issues for various countries to shape their national image, making more demands on nations to accurately position their image in the new era, said Gao Anming, deputy head of the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration.