The US and Japan are besties, and Pakistan loves China - Pew Poll

Japan and Vietnam - two countries that the US wasn't particularly kind to in the midst of the 20th century, are now its biggest supporters in the world. Meanwhile, France and Australia are throwing their lot in for China in a big way.

This survey, released by the Pew Research Center, asked "the global public" throughout a number of countries whether they think that "China will or already has replaced U.S. as [the world's biggest] superpower."

It's a bit of an odd question - determining which country (if any) is the world's superpower is a question of economics and politics and culture. It isn't one that necessarily depends on the nationality of the person answering the question - it's not as if the poll question was "Which country do you like more, the US or China?" 

While the question may have seemed objective, these are some seriously subjective responses. The answers fall into line with general sentiment about the US/China in each country - if you like the US, then you'll say that it will remain the global superpower; if you don't, then it won't.

The fact that the superpower answers correlate fairly closely with the "Do you like China" answers should definitely tell us something:

That seems to ignore the fact that a country may be the world's superpower whether you like it or not. Either Japan and Australia know something the rest of us don't, or they're voting more with their hearts than their minds.