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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 by 6 percentage points, while their trust in the Central Government, their confidence in Hong Kong and China's future, and their confidence in "one country, two systems" have all remained stable. According to our records, people's satisfaction with the HKSAR Government began to rebound in January. At that time, we listed the following events to account for the change: CE's duty visit to Beijing, his presentation of the action agenda on China's "11th Five-Year Plan and the Development of Hong Kong", government's taking new measures on obstetric services and immigration control, government's announcement of conservation policies in heritage, and Hang Seng Index reaching historical high. Since then, there were very few events other than discussions on some government policies in the course of the CE election. We therefore conclude that the above mentioned events have both increased people's satisfaction and trust of the 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 February 27, 2007, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2 pm, when the latest results of Top 10 political groups 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.
For the whole of last year, we have included in our regular press releases a small educational section for the purpose of sharing our research experience with the readers and the general public, and the subject of our education section today is "About HKUPOP". In the near future, we will keep on stepping up our effort in promoting general civic education to enhance our POP Site accordingly.
About HKUPOP
Mapping people's trust and satisfaction with different governments, and people's confidence in the future as well as "one country, two systems"
One important aspect of opinion polling around the world is to monitor people's trust and satisfaction with the government, as well as their confidence in the future. Shortly after HKUPOP was established, we started to conduct surveys on these aspects. Regarding the development of our surveys on people's trust and satisfaction with different governments, we explained it in our press release dated on August 22, November 28 and December 14, 2006. As regards the development of our surveys on people's confidence in the future as well as "one country, two systems", we have also explained it in our press release of November 17, 2006. Today, we release an updated version after some nominal editing in order to give readers a more comprehensive picture of such developments.
(1) Mapping people's trust in different 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 the HKSAR Government, and Chinese Government was substituted by Central Government, while our survey on people's trust in the British Government stopped.
- Our surveys began in December 1992, the wordings used in the questionnaire being "On the whole, do you trust such and such government?". Surveys were conducted once every month, until October 1997 when it was changed to once every two months. It has remained unchanged since then.
- Before May 2000, the sample size of our regular surveys was set slightly over 500. After that, it was then increased to at least 1,000.
(2) Mapping people's satisfaction with the government
- In December 1992, we started to survey people's trust in the British Hong Kong, British, Chinese, and Taiwan Governments. These surveys continued after the handover, but we expanded their scope by introducing people's satisfaction with the HKSAR Government. We take measurements as frequently as we could, using our limited resources. Besides people's general satisfaction with the HKSAR Government, our survey also includes indicators on the government's performance in maintaining economic prosperity, improving people's livelihood, pace of democratic development, and so on.
- Our surveys on people's satisfaction with the HKSAR Government in general began in July 1997. Since then, it has been conducted once every month. The wordings used in the questionnaire being "Are you satisfied with the overall performance of the HKSAR Government?"
- Before May 2000, the sample size of our regular surveys was set slightly over 500. After that, it was then increased to at least 1,000.
(3) Mapping people's confidence in the future and "one country, two systems"
- 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 every month, until April 1998 when it was changed to once every two months. It has remained unchanged since then.
- 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 every 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.
- 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 every month, but were later on changed to once every two months since February 1998. It has remained unchanged since then.
- Regarding the 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 starting 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.
The above findings have all been published regularly on-line via our HKU POP Site, while all the previous findings published via our newsletter POP Express have also been uploaded in various formats.
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