WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Half of Americans now view China favorably, the highest rating since 1989, found a Gallup released Thursday.

This is up from 44 percent in 2016 and 41 percent in 2012, found the Feb. 1-5 Gallup poll.

China's favorable rating by Americans was only 38 in 1985 but registered 72 percent in Gallup's poll in February 1989, taken days after former U.S. President George H. W. Bush returned from a diplomatic visit to China. It had remained at the low 40s for most of the time since 1989, according to Gallup.

The six-percentage-point rise in China's overall favorability from last year is explained by increases among both Democrats and Republicans, Gallup said.

The poll found that 58 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of independents view China favorably. Though only 38 percent of Republicans view China favorably, it is still up by 10 percentage points from 2016.

The U.S.-China relations have never been entirely smooth in the past decades due to tensions over Taiwan, nuclear arms, human rights and other incidents, and the election of Republican candidate Donald Trump as president adds more complexity to the relations, Gallup noted.

Though the future of U.S.-China relations is unclear, "it may be helpful for the new administration to know that Americans are feeling relatively positively toward China right now, and thus may be less receptive to a hard-nosed approach to U.S.-China relations," Gallup said.