Fireworks light up the sky during the National Day Parade show at Singapore's Marina Bay, Aug. 21, 2021. Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore's previous National Day Parade (NDP) celebrations held on Aug. 9 were postponed to Aug. 21. Photo: Xinhua

 Which country is Chinese people's favorite? A new survey shows Singapore ranks top while Japan and Canada, which used to be Chinese people's hot travel destinations, saw a sharp decline, with Canada at the bottom in the latest ranking. 

The survey was conducted online by the Global Times Research Center with market survey firm DATA100, collecting 2,148 valid questionnaires covering 16 Chinese cities from December 10 to 15. 

It shows that apart from China, 14 percent of the respondents said Singapore is their favorite country, which is followed by Germany, France, the US, Russia and Maldives. Canada is their least favorite with only 0.4 percent of respondents saying they like the country.  

As for which country that the Chinese public would like to visit the most, the survey also shows Singapore at the top (17.1 percent), followed by Maldives and France. 

A comparison of data over the past four years shows that Singapore had not been in the top six of Chinese respondents' choice since 2018, before jumping to the top in 2021. However, Japan, which ranked first for two consecutive years in 2019 and 2020, dropped to the sixth place in 2021.

Zhou Fangyin, a professor at the Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies, told the Global Times that it is indeed surprising to see Singapore at the top as both Chinese people's favorite country and favorite travel destination. 

Noting that the improvement on favorability for Singapore formed a stark contrast with the decline of Western countries on the list, the expert believes that the reasons might include the decline of the negative news from Singapore in recent years.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has repeatedly stressed that the country does not take sides between China and the US, and he has an objective and calm attitude toward China-US relations. 

"There are also several similarities between Singapore and China in the fight against COVID-19, which has boosted Chinese people's favorability toward Singapore," Zhou said. 

On October 15, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during his phone conversation with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that China and Singapore should jointly work to address the new task of post-pandemic development, and that the current socio-economic development of both countries and the bilateral relations are standing at a new starting point in history.