Startling new research shows that in many countries – including old US allies – the public prefers Beijing to Washington

Earlier this year, a spate of western TikTok and Instagram creators announced that they were at “a very Chinese time in my life” – drinking hot water and wearing slippers around their homes. The Chinamaxxing phenomenon primarily reflected the constant need of influencers for novel content. But social media trends also reflect a growing fascination with China, as the economic historian Adam Tooze has noted.

While it broods over China’s economic, military and technical advance, the Trump administration is accelerating Beijing’s diplomatic progress, as striking new polling by the Pew Research Center shows. For the first time, China and Xi Jinping are seen more favourably than the US and its president in most of the 36 major countries surveyed – including Canada, Mexico and Australia. Only in six countries did people rate the US more highly. While Beijing has seen significant improvements in some places, the slump in Washington’s standing is more dramatic. Across 20 countries, the median percentage with a favourable view of China rose from 32% to 46% between 2023 and this year; for the US, it fell from 58% to 36%. Views of China were much more positive in Latin America, Africa and parts of south and south-east Asia than in wealthier European and east Asian countries.

Rates may rise, but don’t be too concerned – a small increase is unlikely to change major decisions on investment or hiring

With the appointment of a new Federal Reserve chair, the latest concern is that interest rates will go up in the next few months. That decision will depend on many factors, including inflation, jobs and the economy’s overall growth. But when that happens, watch out! The media will go nuts and the president will go ballistic. Everyone treats every Fed meeting as an economic earthquake. But for most small businesses, it isn’t.

A 25-basis-point increase doesn’t meaningfully change borrowing costs for most established businesses. In fact, it changes nothing at all.

Donald Trump delivered a primetime address to the country on Thursday, claiming that declassified intelligence showed Chinese interference in US elections. The US president revived long-running attacks on election security, despite a US intelligence assessment that found no evidence Beijing altered the 2020 vote, which he lost. The Guardian's voting rights reporter Sam Levine factchecks some of Trump's claims

• Trump is invoking foreign election interference to justify his own - Opinion