[an error occurred while processing the directive] 香港大學民意研究計劃 Public Opinion Programme, The University of Hong Kong

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Press Release on June 24, 2003
 

The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the latest rating of CE Tung Chee-hwa, people's satisfaction with his policy direction, their appraisal of the performance of the HKSAR Government in general, their trust in the HKSAR and Beijing Central Governments, as well as their confidence in Hong Kong's future, China's future and "one country, two systems". Since the Handover Anniversary is approaching, and the results of the items mentioned are released for the last time before that, the half-yearly average figures for these questions carried in the POP Site can actually be regarded as a wrap-up of the public sentiment since the establishment of the HKSAR in 1997.

 

POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday at 2 pm via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the forthcoming week. We will review and adjust this operation regularly. Because next Tuesday is a public holiday, the date and time of our next release will be shifted to June 30, 2002, Monday, at 2 pm, the latest findings on people's most concerned problems and their satisfaction with the current political, economic and social conditions will be released. We will also release other survey results related to the Handover Anniversary.

 

Between June 13 and 18, 2003, POP conducted a random telephone survey which successfully interviewed 1,043 Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. Results showed that the latest rating of CE Tung Chee-hwa was 43.7 marks, representing a significant drop of 2.0 marks from that of early June. Meanwhile, 48% of the respondents were dissatisfied with Tung's policy direction, 54% were dissatisfied with the performance of the HKSAR Government. Both figures were fairly similar to those registered in mid-May. Besides, our latest results showed that 32% of the respondents trusted the HKSAR Government, 41% did not. The trust level has increased by 5 percentage points from that of mid-April. On the other hand, 40% of the respondents trusted the Beijing Central Government, which has significantly increased by 9 percentage points from that of mid-April, and continued to be higher than the corresponding figure for the local government.

 

Meanwhile, 42% of the respondents were confident in Hong Kong's future, 79% expressed confidence in China's future. Both figures have significantly increased from those of mid-April. Finally, 49% of the respondents were confident in "one country, two systems", which was similar to that of mid-April.

 

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, made the following analysis: "The rating of CE Tung Chee-hwa has once again dropped below the 45-mark level, while the results of other indicators could be described as "better than April, but same as May". This shows that the positive impact brought by the alleviation of SARS has begun to be overridden by other news. The surge in unemployment rate and the legislation of Article 23 are now in the limelight. As for the anniversary wrap-up, as far as half-yearly averages are concerned, all indicators of CE and HKSARG's performances are at their record lows since the handover. These include the rating of CE, people's satisfaction with his policy direction, their appraisal of the performance of the HKSAR Government, their trust in the HKSAR Government, their confidence in Hong Kong's future, and their confidence in "one country, two systems". Among them, the latest averages of people's satisfaction with CE's policy direction and the performance of the HKSAR Government are as low as 13% and 15% respectively."

 

The new poll released in the POP Site today is a random telephone survey conducted by interviewers, targeting at Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. The sample size of the survey is 1,043 respondents. At 95% confidence level, the sampling error of the rating of CE Tung Chee-hwa is plus/minus 1.4 marks, while that of all percentages is less than plus/minus 3 percentage points. The meaning of "95% confidence level" is that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site, members of the POP Team will be happy to answer them, but we will not further comment on the findings. Shall any person or journalist have any other questions, please email them to us at <pop.network@hkupop.pori.hk>. The Director of Public Opinion Programme would answer them as soon as possible. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.