HKU POP SITE releases findings on people's expectation of CE's policy address and their ethnic identityBack

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 expectation of the seventh policy address of CE Tung Chee-hwa, as well as their ethnic identity. The latter set of figures is released for the last time this year. Findings registered for these surveys are available in our website. Figures on people's expectation of different policy addresses of CE Tung Chee-hwa are summarized as follows:

* "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.

According to the results obtained in December this year, 41% of the respondents wished CE Tung Chee-hwa would, in his seventh policy address to be announced in early January 2004, take "economic development" as his first priority, while 17% chose "labour and employment". Meanwhile, "social welfare", "education" and "political development" took up 4%, 4% and 3% correspondingly.

Recent figures on people's ethnic identity are summarized as follows:

* "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.

When asked to make a choice among 4 given identities, namely, "Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Citizen" and "Hong Kong Chinese Citizen", 25% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong Citizens", 33% as "Chinese Citizens", 23% as "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens", while 16% identified themselves as "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens". In other words, 48% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong People" in the broader sense (i.e. either as "Hong Kong Citizens" or "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens"), whereas another 48% identified themselves as "Chinese People" in the broader sense (i.e. either as "Chinese Citizens" or "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens", calculated from raw figures with one decimal place).

Because concepts of "Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Citizen" and "Hong Kong Chinese Citizen" may overlap with each other, and making a one-in-four choice may not reflect the actual strengths of one's ethnic identities, POP has therefore conducted parallel tests on the strengths of people's separate identities as "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" using a scale of 0-10. The latest ratings registered in mid-December for "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" were 7.41 and 7.52 marks respectively.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, made the following analysis: "Our survey has found that people's identification as 'Chinese People' in the broader sense has reached a historic high of 48%, more or less the same as that for 'Hong Kong People' in the broader sense. As for the ratings, people's strength of their 'Hong Kong People' identity has dropped significantly since March, down 0.56 mark to a historic low, meaning that people's sense of belonging to this place has dwindled. Regarding their expectations of the forthcoming policy address, there is no doubt that economic and employment issues are their major concerns, but it would not be wise for the government to overlook other issues."

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 our schedule, the date and time of our next release will be December 30, 2003, Tuesday, at 2pm, figures on CE Tung Chee-hwa's latest popularity, people's satisfaction with the HKSAR Government, as well as the 2003 year-end survey 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.