The statement that "overall, China continues to have more backers than detractors" is a really dumb one to make. If you add up the "positive" and "negative" percentages for China, you get 15%. That means 85% are undecided.
Not 15%, 15 out of the 20 countries.
Views of China have declined sharply over the last year, according to the poll.
Among the 20 countries polled both years, the number rating China positively has dropped from 13 to eight, while those rating it negatively have risen from three to seven.
But overall, China continues to have more backers than detractors.
Out of the 20, more countries have a positive opinion of China (8 ) than have a negative opinion (7). i.e., more backers than retractors. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what it means.
