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Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Our latest findings show that people's trust in the HKSAR Government has dropped 6 percentage points compared to two months ago, while people's trust in the Central Government, their confidence in Hong Kong's future, China's future, and "one country, two systems" have not changed much. According to our records, people's trust in the SAR Government reached record high in the last ten days of April, and then receded. Analyzed in conjunction with other popularity indicators, the turning point might well have occurred in early to mid-June. Events in recent months, like the discussion on whether Donald Tsang had attended June 4 activities, revived discussions on the pace of democracy before and after the July 1 Rally, and recent debates on the introduction of GST (goods and services tax), may all have eroded people's trust in the SAR Government."
News about POP
POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday afternoon via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the next 7 days. According to schedule, our next release of regular survey findings will be August 24, 2006, Thursday, between 1pm to 2 pm, when the latest ratings of top ten political groups will be released. Then, on August 29, 2006, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2 pm, the latest popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and people's appraisal of the performance of the HKSAR Government will be released.
Our general practice is to answer all questions on the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site as soon as we receive them, but we will not further comment on the findings. We welcome questions for follow-up purpose, please email them to us at . 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 POP, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.
Starting from January 2006, we have included in our regular press releases a small educational section for the purpose of general civic education, so that we can share our experience with the general public. The subject of our education section today is "About HKUPOP".
About HKUPOP
Mapping people's trust in different governments
One important aspect of opinion polling around the world is to monitor people's trust and satisfaction of the local and central governments. Shortly after HKUPOP was established, we started to conduct surveys on this aspect. This passage explains our work in this regard with specific reference to people's trust in the Hong Kong and Beijing Governments.
Due to Hong Kong's very special political status, before the handover in 1997, our survey covered people's trust in the British Hong Kong, British, Chinese, and Taiwan Governments. After the handover, the survey method remained unchanged, but the term British Hong Kong Government was substituted by HKSAR Government, and Chinese Government was substituted by Central Government, while our survey on people's trust in the British Government stopped. Details regarding our surveys on the local and central governments are as follows:
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In December 1992, survey series
started. The wordings used in the questionnaire being "On the whole,
do you trust such and such government?" Surveys were conducted once a
month, until October 1997 when it was changed to once every two months.
It has remained unchanged since then.
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Regarding sample size, between
December 1992 and April 2000, the sample size of each survey was set at
slightly over 500, while beginning from May 2000, it was increased to at
least 1,000.
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All findings have been published
regularly on-line at our HKU POP Site since December 2001, while all
previous findings published via our newsletter POP Express have also
been uploaded in various formats.
Our survey on people's trust in our local government is, in fact, closely related to our surveys on the popularity of the Chief Executive and the principal officials, as well as our survey on people's satisfaction with the performance of the government. In view of limited space, we will explain those surveys at another date.
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