HKU POP SITE releases the latest figures on people's satisfaction with the HKSAR Government, the independence of Taiwan and cross-strait reunificationBack

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 figures on people's satisfaction with the HKSAR Government, the independence of Taiwan and cross-strait reunification. The last two items are released on-line for the first time, although they had been carried in our previous monthly newsletter "POP Express" before. Our current 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 next two weeks. The POP Site will review and adjust this operation regularly.

According to this schedule, the date and time of our next release will be May 7, 2002, at 2 pm, the latest popularity ratings of CE Tung Chee-hwa, CS Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and FS Antony Leung Kam-chung, and the results of the four subjective social indicators on Hong Kong's degree of "democracy", "freedom", "prosperity", and "stability" will be released. Then, on May 14, at 2 pm, we will release the results of people's trust in the HKSAR and Beijing Central Governments.

According to the latest figures released today, regarding people's appraisal of the government's performance in early April (April 2-8), 26% of the respondents were satisfied, 36% were not, 33% said "half-half", while 5% did not give an answer. Compared to the results captured in early March, the satisfaction figure has increased by nearly four percentage points while the dissatisfaction figure has dropped significantly by nearly seven percentage points. The difference between the two sectors has narrowed noticeably.

Regarding the independence of Taiwan, the figures recorded in mid-March (March 12 and 13) was 11% agreed, 71% opposed, while 18% did not give an answer. On a macro level (please refer to the charts with per-poll figures), opposition to Taiwan's independence has always been the majority view since 1997, and the number has been fluctuating upward, from 59% captured in August 1997 to become 71% recorded in March 2002.

The mid-March (March 12 and 13) figures also showed that 54% of the respondents were confident in the final reunification across the strait, 27% were not, the remaining 19% did not give an answer. On a macro level (please refer to the charts with per-poll figures), confidence level has been fluctuating upward from 30% registered in August 1997 to 54% recorded in March 2002. Besides, since October 1999, more people are optimistic than pessimistic on this issue.

All new surveys reported in the POP Site today are random telephone surveys conducted by interviewers, targeting at Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. The sample size of all surveys is over 1,000 respondents. At 95% confidence level, the sampling error of all percentages is less than plus/minus 3 percentage points. That means 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 comment on the findings at this stage. Such an arrangement would be reviewed when more resources are available. Please note that Dr CHUNG Ting-yiu Robert, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is solely responsible for the work published in the POP Site, which does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong.