question: This paper gauges COVID-19’s effect on global public perception of China and the likely implications for China’s development model and international influence. How does COVID-19 affect China’s exercise of soft power and the international community’s appraisal of it? Using global perception data from the Pew Research Centre, the paper argues that COVID-19 is likely to have dire consequences on China’s soft power and international influence based on the soft power theory. Specifically, China lost a chance to present the attractiveness of its development model – Beijing Consensus – and establish credibility for global leadership due to the universal perception of the relationship between the pandemic and China despite the country’s international efforts. The paper concludes that this will validate people’s opinions about China and accelerate an already existing trend – unfavourable image. The paper serves as a new scientific contribution to the literature on soft power and foreign policy.