On Tuesday, Pew Research Center released a new poll showing that unfavorable opinions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have reached new highs in developed nations.

Overall, 73% of those polled across fourteen advanced countries declared that they now have an unfavorable opinion of China. Every country that was polled now shows a strong majority opposition to China, ranging from Italy’s 62% unfavorable to Japan’s 86% unfavorable rating. Several countries are now at historic highs for disfavor toward China, including a record 73% opposition from the United States.

A strong majority (61%) of those polled across the fourteen countries also say that China has done a bad job of dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. After internally discovering the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the Chinese government silenced whistleblower doctors, censored language about the disease on social media, and failed to provide any information to the World Health Organization (WHO), in an apparent coverup of the outbreak.

The developed world is also losing faith in Chairman Xi Jinping as the leader of China. The vast majority of those polled now say that they have “no confidence” in Xi to do the right thing regarding world affairs. The biggest shift since last year was in the United States, where expressions of no confidence in Chairman Xi jumped from 50% in 2019 to 77% in 2020.

Several countries have experienced major shifts in public opinion toward China just in the last few years. Only 32% of Australians had an unfavorable view of China in 2017, but today the number has more than doubled to a whopping 81%. Similarly, only 37% of UK residents had an unfavorable view of China in 2017, but three years later that number has doubled to 74%.

For thirteen of the fourteen polled countries, there exists an age gap in unfavorable views of China, with older citizens (age 50+) tending to have more unfavorable views than younger citizens (ages 18-29). The opposite is true in South Korea, where younger Koreans have more unfavorable opinions than older Koreans on average. Every age group in every country, though, maintains a majority unfavorable opinion of China.

This poll represents a significant shift in international attitudes toward China and its ruling Communist Party. From North America to Europe and the Asia-Pacific, the world’s major democratic powers are unanimously turning against China. Along with the Chinese government’s mishandling of the COVID-19 virus, their alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong likely played a part in the heavily negative outlook on China that is displayed across the world today.

The implications of the poll results are important to international and economic relations in the short- and long-term future. The snowballing negative opinions toward China across the world’s major powers will likely lead to further rifts between China and the rest of the world, with the possibility of increased sanctions, tariffs, and economic decoupling close on the horizon.

The poll was conducted by phone and interviewed citizens from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.