Respondents were asked if they had a very favourable, somewhat favourable, somewhat unfavourable, or very unfavourable opinion of each superpower.
The research centre found that in 25 of the 36 countries, there were more people who had favourable views of China than of the US.
It marks the first time the centre, which has been tracking global sentiments towards the superpowers since 2002, has seen such a result in so many countries, according to Jonathan Schulman, one of the study’s researchers.
Pew has seen previous dips in positive views of the US – in 2008, at the end of George Bush’s administration, and in 2017, at the start of Trump’s first term.
Even then, however, favourable views of China tended to be on par or slightly lower, Schulman told the BBC.
Spain, Indonesia, Italy, Greece and Canada were among the countries that saw the biggest swings towards China.
Only six countries in this year’s survey still favour the US more, most of which are staunch US allies: Poland, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Japan and Israel.
Separately, the centre found that the median favourable opinion of the US across 20 countries had dropped steadily in recent years while the median favourable opinion of China had been rising.
