HKU POP SITE releases the latest findings of people's opinions towards Taiwan issuesBack


Press Release on December 22, 2005
 

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 of people's opinions towards Taiwan issues. As a general practice, all figures have been weighted according to the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population obtained from the 2001 Population Census, and are summarized as follows:

 
  Date of survey  6-9/12/04   1-3/3/05   6-8/6/05   1-7/9/05   9-14/12/05   Latest change 
  Sample base  1,007   1,019   1,029   1,007   1,017   -- 
  Overall response rate  67.8%   63.1%   66.0%   62.0%   67.7%   -- 
  Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)*  +/- 3%   +/- 3%   +/- 3%   +/- 3%   +/- 3%   -- 
  Taiwan independence: Opposition rate  78%   78%   77%   81%   78%   -3% 
  Taiwan independence: Support rate  11%   12%   9%   10%   9%   -1% 
  Taiwan rejoining the United Nations: Opposition rate  58%   58%   53%   58%   53%   -5% 
  Taiwan rejoining the United Nations: Support rate  24%   26%   24%   26%   24%   -2% 
  Confidence in cross-strait reunification  42%   53%   50%   68%   49%   -19% 
  No-confidence in cross-strait reunification  43%   36%   34%   22%   36%   +14% 
  Believed "one country, two systems" was applicable to TW  45%   49%   42%   50%   46%   -4% 
  Believed "one country, two systems" was not applicable to TW  37%   37%   37%   35%   34%   -1% 

* "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.

 

Results obtained in early December revealed that, 78% of Hong Kong people interviewed opposed the independence of Taiwan whereas only 9% showed support. Meanwhile, 53% opposed Taiwan rejoining the United Nations, 24% supported it. Moreover, 49% were confident in the ultimate reunification across the strait whilst 36% expressed no confidence. As for the applicability of "one country, two systems" to Taiwan, 46% gave a positive view while 34% gave a negative view.

 

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, 「Almost 80% of Hong Kong people opposed to the independence of Taiwan, more than half opposed to Taiwan rejoining the United Nations, and nearly half believed that "one country, two systems" could be applied to Taiwan. These figures did not fluctuate too much over the past three months. However, people's confidence in cross-strait reunification has plunged 19 percentage points over the past three months, down to the level 6 months ago. This shows that the positive effect of Ma Ying-jeou's becoming the new Chairman of Kuomintang has already faded away in the minds of Hong Kong people.」

 

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. Since next Tuesday is a public holiday, the date and time of our next release of survey findings will be postponed to December 29, 2005, Thursday, at 2 pm, when the latest popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and HKSAR Government, as well as the results of the 2005 year-end and 2006 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.