Image of China improving steadily

China's image is steadily improving on the world stage, with more developed countries recognizing its role in domestic and international affairs, according to a survey published on Friday.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the average approval rating for China's image in the survey period, which covered 2016 and 2017, was 6.22 - up slightly from 6.2 in 2015. Italy's perception of China rose by 0.5 points to 6.58, while that of Canada and the United Kingdom both rose by 0.4 points, reaching 5.79 and 6.14, respectively.

These three developed countries saw the biggest improvement out of the 22 surveyed nations. More than 11,000 people participated in the survey, which was conducted by the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration and Kantar Millward Brown, a global market research company.