HKU POP SITE releases the latest findings on people's satisfaction with the current social conditions and their opinions towards Taiwan issuesBack

Press Release on September 16, 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 findings on people's satisfaction with the current social conditions and their opinions towards Taiwan issues. Recent figures are summarized as follows:

Date of survey	17-19/3	13-18/6	8-10/9
Sample base	1,068	1,043	1,021
Overall response rate	71.5%	68.0%	70.9%
Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)*	+/- 3%	+/- 3%	+/- 3%

Most concerned with economic problems	72%	72%	74%
Most concerned with social problems	19%	18%	13%
Most concerned with political problems	4%	5%	4%
Current economic condition: Dissatisfaction rate**	84%	82%	68%
Current economic condition: Satisfaction rate**	5%	4%	8%
Current political condition: Dissatisfaction rate**	34%	48%	47%
Current political condition: Satisfaction rate**	28%	19%	16%
Current social condition: Dissatisfaction rate**	48%	46%	44%
Current social condition: Satisfaction rate**	27%	26%	26%
Taiwan independence: Opposition rate	72%	66%	65%
Taiwan independence: Support rate	13%	16%	17%
No-confidence in cross-strait reunification	34%	37%	48%
Confidence in cross-strait reunification	50%	46%	30%

* "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.
** Collapsed from a 5-point scale.

Results showed that 74% of the respondents were most concerned with economic problems these days, 13% with social problems, while 4% attached their greatest concern to political problems. Meanwhile, people's dissatisfaction with the current economic, political and social conditions were 68%, 47% and 44% correspondingly. On the other hand, 65% of the respondents opposed the independence of Taiwan, but only 30% were confident in the ultimate reunification across the strait.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, made the following analysis: "The most important finding for this survey is that people's dissatisfaction with Hong Kong's economic condition has subsided somewhat, but their dissatisfaction with the political condition has remained practically unchanged. This indicates that the political demands sparked off by the controversy surrounding Article 23 of the Basic Law have yet to be answered. Nevertheless, people are still more concerned with economic development than other issues. At the other front, people's objection to Taiwan's gaining independence has remained quite stable over the past three months, at around 65%. However, probably due to intensified independent movement in Taiwan lately, Hong Kong people's confidence in final cross-strait reunification has dropped significantly."

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. According to this schedule, the date and time of our next release will be September 23, 2003, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest figures on the popularity of CE Tung Chee-hwa and the SAR Government will be released.

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 <[email protected]>. 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.