New Delhi, July 17 -- WASHINGTON - Three years ago, Canadians who viewed China favorably amounted to barely one in seven. By spring of this year, that number had jumped to nearly one in two. The 30-point swing is the sharpest national reversal in a sweeping global survey that found China's image has now surpassed the United States for the first time in nearly two decades of international polling.

The Pew Research Center released the findings on Tuesday, drawing on interviews with 42,151 adults across 36 countries conducted between February and May of this year. The survey found a majority in 25 of those 36 nations now hold a favorable view of China, while the United States leads in only six. It is the first such inversion in roughly 20 y...