In a rapidly changing world as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the world in 2021, more Chinese people consider China-Russia and China-EU relations more important than China-US ties. It was also the first time in 15 years that China-US ties did not top the list of the important bilateral relations in the Global Times annual survey. Despite US-led Western small cliques continue to contain China on multiple fronts such as trade, high-tech, human rights and ideologies, the majority of the Chinese people surveyed hold optimistic views over the future geopolitical environment while many showed less approval or even disapproval of the US-led Western democracy, the survey showed.