The Chinese believe corruption is the biggest problem hurting the nation's image, a recent survey has found.

A poll conducted by the Horizon Research Consultancy Group showed nearly 60 percent of the respondents took corruption among government officials as the biggest blot on China's image, to be followed by counterfeit and shoddy goods, and pollution, the China Daily reported Wednesday.

Altogether 1,350 people in five major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, joined the telephone survey in mid-December.

Shi Yinhong, an international studies expert at the Beijing-based Renmin University of China, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that people chose corruption as the biggest problem mainly because they felt resentful about it.

Shi said the main way to improve China's image was to deal well with domestic affairs, which requires better handling of problems ranging from corruption to narrowing the wealth gap, balancing economic growth and environmental protection.