HK-Macau comparative study: Macau people support their government moreBack
| Press Release on February 4, 2004 |
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Since 1992, the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong has been conducting studies in Macau, in order to map its changing public sentiment. A total of 9 surveys have been completed in the past 10 years, with election exit polls and public opinion surveys being the main foci. All studies are conducted independently by the POP research team, unaffected by any government or sponsor. |
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After the handovers of Hong Kong and Macau, the public mood of the two societies have come closer and closer. In the middle of last year, POP and the Union For Construction Of Macau reached an agreement to embark on a "Joint Project on Regular Opinion Surveys in Macau", initially for one year, which aims at establishing in Macau a mechanism to conduct scientific opinion surveys, reinforcing the channels for collecting public opinion, fostering the development of opinion surveys in Macau, as well as providing scientific opinion data for comparative studies between Hong Kong and Macau. |
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The first and second surveys of this joint project were conducted in Macau in August and October last year respectively, and the results have been released in September, October last year and last week. Released today are the findings of the third survey of this joint project, which focuses on Macau people's satisfaction with the Macau Chief Executive and his Policy Address, their satisfaction and confidence in the Macau SAR Government, their confidence in China's future and "one country, two systems", the strength of their ethnic identity, as well as their views on Macau's handover at its fourth anniversary. The survey was conducted between December 26 and 30, 2003, by random telephone surveys executed by interviewers. It successfully interviewed 574 Macau citizens of age 18 or above. |
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For easy comparison of the relevant figures between Hong Kong and Macau, other than the questions on the handover of Macau, results obtained from some Hong Kong surveys conducted more or less over the same period have been listed side by side as follows: |
| Macau Survey | HK Survey | |||
| Date of survey | 18-31/12/02 | 26-30/12/03 | 13-18/12/02 | 20-23/12/03 |
| Sample base | 547 | 574 | 1,026 | 1,022 |
| Overall response rate | 59.5% | 90.8% | 67.6% | 66.0% |
| Sampling error of CE's rating (at 95% conf. level)* | +/-1.2 | +/-1.2 | +/-1.4 | +/-1.4 |
| Sampling error of ratings of ethnic identity (at 95% conf. level)* | +/-0.16 | +/-0.16 | +/-0.16 | +/-0.14 |
| Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)* | +/-4% | +/-4% | +/-3% | +/-3% |
| Support rating of the Chief Executive | 75.8 | 79.1 | 47.0 | 43.8 |
| Appraisal of the Policy Address: Satisfaction rate** | 54% | 50% | -- | -- |
| Appraisal of the Policy Address: Dissatisfaction rate** | 2% | 2% | -- | -- |
| Performance of SARG: Satisfaction rate** | 64% | 72% | 17% | 17% |
| Performance of SARG: Dissatisfaction rate** | 4% | 5% | 48% | 51% |
| Confidence in SARG** | 81% | 78% | 36% | 32% |
| No-confidence in SARG** | 3% | 3% | 34% | 38% |
| Confidence in China's future | 91% | 86% | 84% | 86% |
| No-confidence in China's future | 4% | 4% | 8% | 7% |
| Confidence in "one country, two systems" | 80% | 80% | 51% | 56% |
| No-confidence in "one country, two systems" | 8% | 7% | 35% | 27% |
| Rating of strength of "Macau citizens"/ "HK citizens" identity | 7.48 | 7.83 | 7.77 | 7.41# |
| Rating of strength of "Chinese citizens" identity | 7.79 | 8.12 | 7.44 | 7.52# |
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* "95% confidence level" means 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. |
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Results of late December last year showed that, the popularity ratings of the Chief Executives of Hong Kong and Macau were 43.8 and 79.1 marks respectively, meaning that the latter was 35 marks ahead of the former. Moreover, as high as 72% of Macau people were satisfied with the performance of their government, or 55 percentage points higher than the corresponding figure for the HKSAR Government. Besides, 78% Macau people said they trusted their government, which was 46 percentage points higher than the 32% registered for the HKSAR Government. Findings also revealed that, the confidence levels of Hong Kong and Macau people towards China's future were the same, both at 86%. However, regarding "one country, two systems", Macau people were obviously more confident than Hong Kong people, as the former stood at 80%, whereas the latter was only 56%. On the other hand, Macau people's strength of identity as "Macau citizens" and "Chinese citizens" on a scale of 0-10 were 7.83 and 8.12 marks respectively, whereas Hong Kong people's self-identification as "Hong Kong citizens" and "Chinese citizens" were 7.41 and 7.52 marks respectively. |
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Macau people's views on their handover throughout the years are summarized below: |
| Date of survey | 17-18/12/99 | 28-30/12/00 | 18-29/12/01 | 18-31/12/02 | 26-30/12/03 | Latest change |
| Sample base | 575 | 551 | 547 | 547 | 574 | -- |
| Overall response rate | 60.0% | 58.2% | 65.0% | 59.5% | 90.8% | -- |
| Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)* | +/-4% | +/-4% | +/-4% | +/-4% | +/-4% | -- |
| Feelings for handover: Positive words | 56% | 36% | 38% | 30% | 48% | +18% |
| Feelings for handover: Negative words | 2% | 3% | 3% | 2% | 2% | -- |
| Feelings for handover: Ambivalent words | 2% | 2% | 2% | 1% | 2% | +1% |
| Feelings for handover: Neutral words | 37% | 58% | 56% | 65% | 46% | -19% |
| Perceived significant changes in the Macau society after the handover^ | 46% | 72% | 65% | 65% | 76% | +11% |
| Perceived no significant changes in the Macau society after the handover^ | 43% | 26% | 32% | 30% | 19% | -11% |
| Was proud of becoming a national citizen of China after the handover | 63% | 66% | 63% | 63% | 64% | +1% |
| Was not proud of becoming a national citizen of China after the handover | 27% | 28% | 30% | 30% | 28% | -2% |
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* "95% confidence level" means 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. |
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Results of late December last year showed that, 48% Macau people interviewed used positive words like "happy" and "excited" to describe their feelings for the handover, while 46% used neutral words like "calm" and "no special feelings". On the other hand, 76% believed there had been significant changes in the society of Macau since the handover, 64% said they were proud of becoming a national citizen of China. |
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Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, made the following comments on these findings: "The peoples of Hong Kong and Macau are different, hence any comparison between them must be handled with care. However, unless one denies all bases of comparison, otherwise, the significant difference between our two sets of data clearly indicates that the policy direction of Macau's CE and SARG is much more in line with what people wants, than that of their Hong Kong counterparts. Compared to one year ago, at the end of 2003, the popularity of Macau's CE and SARG have gone up, while those of Hong Kong have gone down. Similarly, Macau people's strength of identification of themselves as 'Macau citizens' has surged, while the strength of Hong Kong people's identity as 'Hong Kong citizens' has declined. There are enormous differences between the sentiment of the two peoples." |
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Dr Fong Man-tat, representing the Union For Construction Of Macau, said the findings reflected "Macau people's traditional patriotic sentiment". As on Macau people's high level of confidence towards their government, notwithstanding some degree of dissatisfaction, Fong advised the Macau Government to "treasure it, while continue to improve its governance, by dismissing incompetent officials proactively, in order to protect the well-being of Macau people." |
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Contact information and detailed figures of this survey have been published at the POP Site. Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the survey, 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 <[email protected]> or <[email protected]>. We would answer them as soon as possible. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. |
