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Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Our latest findings show that all five trust and confidence indicators have remained positive. Compared to two months ago, people's trust in the HKSAR Government has rebounded, while people's confidence in Hong Kong and China's future have slightly dropped. People's trust in the Central Government and their confidence in "one country, two systems" have not changed much. We did not ask respondents to give us their reasons for any rise or drop in confidence, but the subsiding of debates on GST (goods and services tax) and minimum wages, and the growing fluidity of the financial market with occasional warnings, may all have affected the trends of the indicators."
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 November 9, 2006, Thursday, between 1pm to 2 pm, when the latest figures on people's appraisal of local news media will be released. Then, on November 14, 2006, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2 pm, we will release the latest popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and Principal Officials under the accountability system.
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 confidence in the future and "one country, two systems"
One important aspect of opinion polling around the world is to monitor people's confidence in the future of their own country and region. 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 confidence in Hong Kong's future, China's future and "one country, two systems".
Due to Hong Kong's very special political status, before the handover in 1997, our survey covered people's confidence in Hong Kong's future and "one country, two systems". After the handover, the survey added the question on people's confidence in China's future in the series. Details regarding our surveys are as follows:
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In December 1992, our survey series on people's confidence started. With respect to people's confidence in Hong Kong, the wordings used in the questionnaire being "Do you have confidence in HK's future?" Surveys were conducted once a month, until April 1998 when it was changed to once every two months. It has remained unchanged since then.
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As for people's confidence in China's future, the frequency was not quite stable at the beginning. Beginning in July 1997, the wordings used in the questionnaire being "Do you have confidence in China's future?" Surveys were conducted once a month at the beginning, but between January 1998 and July 2001, only 5 surveys were conducted on an irregular basis. Then, in August 2001, the survey began its regular course of development, and has been conducted once every two months since then.
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As for people's confidence in "one country, two systems", the survey started in June 1993. The wordings used in the questionnaire being "On the whole, do you have confidence in 'one country, two systems'?" Surveys were conducted once every two months, until May 1995 when it was changed to once a month, but were later on changed to once every two months since February 1998. It has remained unchanged since then.
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Regarding sample size, from the beginning to June 2000, the sample size of "people's confidence in HK's future/"one country, two systems" survey was set at slightly over 500, while beginning from May 2000, it was increased to at least 1,000. As for "people's confidence in China's future, since July 2001, the sample size has been changed from slightly over 500 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.
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