The results of a poll released on the evening of may 18 caused an uproar in germany. The frankfurter allgemeine zeitung lamented that the german people are so naive that there is a tendency to "Close to china and dislike the united states" that is not in line with germany's interests. "Le monde" exclaimed that accepting us leadership is a thousand times better than surrendering to china.
Even the academics who conducted the polls were a little surprised by the ghost mannequin effect service results themselves. Joshua webb, the project manager of europe-china relations at the kölber foundation in germany, told dw that they were quite surprised when they received the aggregated raw data of the polls in early april not long ago. "Compared with 2019, this number has changed significantly: in the last (2019) survey, the proportion of germans who believed that 'keeping close ties with the united states' was more important than 'keeping close ties with china' was still 50%. (2020) plummeted to 37%. And germans, who think close ties with china are more important, rose to 36% from 24% last year.”
Weber pointed out that, in fact, the downward trend of germans' favorability towards the united states has been observed by the kolber foundation in the same polls in previous years, but the magnitude is not as dramatic as this year. "Overall, after 2016, the german population has been constantly alienating the united states."