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


Press Release on December 21, 2004
 

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 eighth 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. Figures on people's expectation of different policy addresses of CE Tung Chee-hwa are summarized as follows:

 
 Date of survey 13-21/9/01 2-6/12/02 10-14/12/03 6-9/12/04 Latest change
 Sample base 1,025 1,063 1,059 1,007 --
 Overall response rate 60.5% 64.0% 63.5% 67.8% --
 Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)* +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% --
 Economic development as the point of focus in the next policy address 35% 44% 41% 26% -15%
 Labour and employment as the point of focus in the next policy address 33% 29% 17% 21% +4%
 Social welfare as the point of focus in the next policy address 3% 4% 4% 6% +2%
 Education as the point of focus in the next policy address 4% 2% 4% 4% --
 Housing as the point of focus in the next policy address 6% 2% 1% 4% +3%
 Having no definite expectation in the next policy address 15% 16% 25% 34% +9%

* "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 early December, 26% of the respondents wished CE Tung Chee-hwa would, in his eighth Policy Address to be announced in early January 2005, take "economic development" as his first priority, while 21% chose "labour and employment". Meanwhile, only 6% chose "social welfare", while both "education" and "housing" took up 4% of the respondents, and the percentage of "don't know / hard to say" was as high as 34%.

 

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

 Date of survey 1-4/3/03 13-18/6/03 10-14/12/03 7-11/6/04 6-9/12/04 Latest change
 Sample base 1,035 1,043 1,059 1,027 1,007 --
 Overall response rate 68.0% 68.0% 63.5% 66.9% 67.8% --
 Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)* @ +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% --
 Sampling error of ratings (at 95% conf. level)* +/- 0.16 +/- 0.14 +/- 0.14 +/- 0.16 +/- 0.16 --
 Identified themselves as "Hong Kong Citizens" 29% 37% 25% 28% 26% -2%
 Identified themselves as "Chinese Citizens" 32% 29% 33% 33% 32% -1%
 Identified themselves as "Hong Kong People" in broad sense 51% 56% 48% 49% 49% --
 Identified themselves as "Chinese People" in broad sense 47% 41% 48% 47% 48% +1%
 Rating of strength of "Hong Kong Citizens" identity 7.97 7.57 7.41 7.54 7.54 --
 Rating of strength of "Chinese Citizens" identity 7.76 7.32 7.52 7.48 7.47 -0.01

* "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.
@ Erratum: The label of error margins in the original release was mis-typed

 

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", 26% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong Citizens", 32% as "Chinese Citizens", 23% as "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens", while 16% identified themselves as "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens". In other words, 49% 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").

 

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 early December for "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" were 7.54 and 7.47 marks respectively.

 

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed: "Regarding their expectations of the forthcoming policy address, people are obviously more concerned with economic and employment issues. However, the former has significantly decreased, due to economic recovery. Over one-third did not give specific answers, which is record high since the handover, showing that people are losing interest in the policy address. Regarding Hong Kong people's ethnic identity, all figures are almost the same as that six months ago."

 

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. The date and time of our next release will be December 28, 2004, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest popularity of CE Tung Chee-hwa and HKSAR Government, as well as the 2004 year-end and 2005 forecast survey will be released.

 

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.