The Pew Research Center published on 13 November 2025 a report titled "South Africans See Their Country's Influence Weakening Ahead of G20: China Gets Higher Ratings than the U.S." by Laura Clancy, Jordan Lippert, and Manolo Corichi.
According to a Pew survey, 57 percent of South Africans have favorable opinions of China while 50 percent hold the same view of the United States. This is the first time ratings of China are higher than ratings of the United States since Pew began tracking South African opinion of these countries in 2008.
In addition, more South Africans say that it is important to have strong economic ties with China (50 percent) than say the same about the United States (33 percent).
