[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 October 29, 2002
 

According to this schedule, the date and time of our next release will be November 5, 2002, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest results of the four subjective social indicators on Hong Kong's degree of "democracy", "freedom", "prosperity" and "stability" will be released. We will also release the latest findings on people's confidence in Hong Kong's future, China's future, and "one country, two systems".

 

According to the latest figures released today, CE Tung Chee-hwa's rating registered in mid-October (October 13-16) was 49.2 marks, representing a slight increase of 0.2 mark from that of early October, which was statistically insignificant. However, the figure has increased for four consecutive times since mid-August, with an accumulative increase of 2.2 marks. Regarding people's appraisal of the HKSAR Government, 50% of the respondents were dissatisfied with its performance, 19% were satisfied, 28% said "half-half", while 4% did not give a definite answer. The results were similar to those obtained in mid-September.

 

On the other hand, people's trust in the HKSAR Government marked its first rebound since the beginning of this year. The latest figures registered in mid-October showed that 36% of the respondents trusted the government, 34% did not, 25% said "half-half", while 5% did not give a definite answer. When compared with results registered in mid-August, the trust level has increased by 4 percentage points, whereas the distrust level has dropped by 3 percentage points.

 

As regards people's trust in the Beijing Central Government, the latest results revealed that 41% of the respondents trusted the Beijing Central Government, 26% did not, while 22% said "half-half". The trust level has increased by 4 percentage points when compared with that of mid-August, and continued to be higher than the corresponding figure for the local government.

 

Regarding the results of a series of questions related to the rule of law, on a scale of 0-10, the latest score of people's appraisal of the impartiality of the courts was 6.97 marks, representing a significant increase of 0.27 mark from early July. Meanwhile, people's appraisal of compliance with the rule of law and the fairness of the judicial system were 6.61 and 6.47 marks respectively, showing a slight increase of 0.05 mark for both figures, which was statistically insignificant. Because the Court's sentencing of local artist Tse Ting-fung after he was convicted of conspiring to pervert the course of justice fell on the last day of our fieldwork period, the findings may not be able to reflect the last stage of the case's development.

 

Finally, the latest popularity rating of Chief Justice Andrew Li Kowk-nang was 59.7 marks, representing a drop of 0.9 mark from that of mid-July, which was statistically insignificant. His recognition rate, however, was not high, as nearly half of the respondents could not give him a rating.

 

The new survey reported 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 over 1,000 respondents. At 95% confidence level, the sampling error of the ratings of CE Tung Chee-hwa and CJ Andrew Li Kowk-nang is plus/minus 1.4 marks, that of the three indicators related to the rule of law is plus/minus 0.12 mark, while that 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.