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The research design of our survey on "people's feeling towards different governments" has been explained in detail under "Survey Method" in our corresponding web page. When POP selected 15 governments for inclusion in survey many years ago, our primary objective was to map Hong Kong people's cosmopolitan view over time. As the 10th anniversary of the HKSAR approaches, we have made some changes in our research design. In our naming survey conducted on May 4-9, other than the HKSAR, Mainland, Macau SAR and Taiwan governments, respondents could name, unaided, up to ten governments which they knew best. The governments of United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France and Australia were mentioned most frequently. Please refer to the relevant table in our website for the rest of the list. The four cross-strait governments together with 12 other governments most frequently mentioned in the naming stage were then shortlisted into the second stage. During that second stage survey conducted on May 16-25, respondents were asked to rate their feelings towards the shortlisted governments as either "very positive", "quite positive", "half-half", "quite negative" or "very negative".
Recent figures of people's feeling towards different governments are summarized below. Except the four cross-strait governments, all others are ranked according to people's positive feelings:
| Date of survey |
8-11/11/04 |
18-23/11/05 |
20-24/11/06 |
16-25/5/07 |
Latest change |
| Sample base |
1,000 |
1,019 |
1,012 |
1,008 |
-- |
| Overall response rate |
64.5% |
62.9% |
58.8% |
61.1% |
-- |
| Sampling error of percentages (at 95% confidence level)* |
+/-3% |
+/-3% |
+/-3% |
+/-3% |
-- |
| Finding/Sampling error* |
Finding |
Finding |
Finding |
Finding |
Sampling error |
Recognition rate |
-- |
| Hong Kong |
Positive** |
27% |
59% |
53% |
53% |
+/-3% |
99% |
-- |
| |
Negative** |
23% |
7% |
10% |
7% |
+/-2% |
-3% |
| Mainland |
Positive** |
35% |
50% |
43% |
44% |
+/-3% |
98% |
+1% |
| |
Negative** |
12% |
11% |
11% |
12% |
+/-2% |
+1% |
| Taiwan |
Positive** |
10% |
17% |
11% |
5% |
+/-1% |
83% |
-6% |
| |
Negative** |
47% |
40% |
53% |
59% |
+/-3% |
+6% |
| Macau |
Positive** |
57% |
68% |
66% |
36% |
+/-3% |
91% |
-30% |
| |
Negative** |
2% |
3% |
3% |
12% |
+/-2% |
+9% |
| Singapore |
Positive** |
54% |
52% |
57% |
54% |
+/-3% |
80% |
-3% |
| |
Negative** |
6% |
6% |
5% |
8% |
+/-2% |
+3% |
| Canada |
Positive** |
34% |
35% |
37% |
48% |
+/-3% |
96% |
+11% |
| |
Negative** |
2% |
4% |
3% |
3% |
+/-1% |
-- |
| Australia |
Positive** |
34% |
35% |
40% |
38% |
+/-3% |
80% |
-2% |
| |
Negative** |
3% |
5% |
4% |
4% |
+/-1% |
-- |
| United Kingdom |
Positive** |
36% |
45% |
43% |
37% |
+/-3% |
69% |
-6% |
| |
Negative** |
13% |
11% |
10% |
12% |
+/-2% |
+2% |
| South Korea |
Positive** |
-- |
-- |
-- |
29% |
+/-3% |
73% |
-- |
| |
Negative** |
-- |
-- |
-- |
10% |
+/-2% |
-- |
| Germany |
Positive** |
-- |
-- |
-- |
26% |
+/-3% |
74% |
-- |
| |
Negative** |
-- |
-- |
-- |
3% |
+/-1% |
-- |
| France |
Positive** |
-- |
-- |
-- |
25% |
+/-3% |
58% |
-- |
| |
Negative** |
-- |
-- |
-- |
6% |
+/-2% |
-- |
| Thailand |
Positive** |
-- |
-- |
-- |
22% |
+/-3% |
53% |
-- |
| |
Negative** |
-- |
-- |
-- |
19% |
+/-2% |
-- |
| Italy |
Positive** |
-- |
-- |
-- |
19% |
+/-2% |
78% |
-- |
| |
Negative** |
-- |
-- |
-- |
5% |
+/-1% |
-- |
| Japan |
Positive** |
20% |
11% |
21% |
18% |
+/-2% |
89% |
-3% |
| |
Negative** |
36% |
56% |
39% |
39% |
+/-3% |
-- |
| United States |
Positive** |
13% |
14% |
13% |
18% |
+/-2% |
57% |
+5% |
| |
Negative** |
40% |
46% |
40% |
32% |
+/-3% |
-8% |
| Russia |
Positive** |
10% |
14% |
10% |
11% |
+/-2% |
65% |
+1% |
| |
Negative** |
20% |
14% |
22% |
22% |
+/-3% |
-- |
| Vietnam |
Positive** |
5% |
8% |
12% |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| |
Negative** |
30% |
22% |
26% |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| India |
Positive** |
6% |
9% |
11% |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| |
Negative** |
16% |
15% |
16% |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| Philippines |
Positive** |
8% |
10% |
8% |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| |
Negative** |
24% |
23% |
28% |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| Indonesia |
Positive** |
5% |
7% |
6% |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| |
Negative** |
33% |
32% |
40% |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
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* "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. Media can state "sampling error of percentages not more than +/-3% at 95% confidence level" when quoting the above figures.
** Collapsed from a 5-point scale.
Findings obtained in mid-May 2007 showed that, regarding the results of people's feeling towards different governments, 53% felt positive towards the HKSAR government while 7% felt negative. For the other cross-strait governments, the corresponding positive figures for the Mainland, Taiwan and Macau SAR governments were 44%, 5% and 36%, while the corresponding negative figures were 12%, 59% and 12%. As for other governments, the positive figures for Singapore, Canada and Australia were 54%, 48% and 38% respectively, while those for United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany, France, Thailand, Italy, Japan and United States were 37%, 29%, 26%, 25%, 22%, 19%, 18% and 18% correspondingly. Lastly, only 11% expressed positive feelings towards the government of Russia.
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Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "We started our survey on Hong Kong people's feeling towards different governments in 1997, in order to study Hong Kong people's international perspective. According to our findings accumulated over the years, Hong Kong people's familiarity with different governments has increased in recent years, meaning that people's horizon has widened. The processes of globalization and information infiltration, and the increasing number of Hong Kong people going on trips, may all have contributed to the change. In general terms, the more contacts people have with different countries, the more they know about the world, and the more objective they would become regarding their views on different governments. In our latest survey, it is interesting to note that Hong Kong people's positive feeling towards the Macau SAR government has dropped 30 percentage points compared to 6 months ago. This shows that Hong Kong people do not like the way the Macau government handled her people's protests, and the corruptive practices in Macau. As for governments beyond the cross-strait region, Hong Kong people seem to like the government of Singapore most, with a positive rate almost reaching 55%. The government of Canada follows, with about 50%, then the governments of Australia and United Kingdom, at about 40%. Where negative feeling is concerned, the governments of Taiwan, Japan, United States and Russia all scored negatively in terms of net dislike. It should be noted, however, that we are just measuring people's feeling towards different governments, not peoples. As internationalization continues, we will expand our scope of survey to cover Hong Kong people's feelings towards other peoples in our next round of survey."
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 June 12, 2007, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2 pm, when the latest popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and Principal Officials under the accountability system will be released. Then on June 14, 2007, Thursday, between 1pm to 2pm, POP will release the latest figures on the popularity of SAR and Central Governments, and people's confidence in the future.
It is our general practice 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 <[email protected]>. 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 feelings towards different governments
As the world progresses, Hong Kong people need to know and care more about the world, on top of their concern for local matters. Around the time of Hong Kong's handover, we at HKUPOP began to measure Hong Kong people's global views, while at the same time stepping up our surveys on national issues. Herewith some details regarding the development of our survey of people's feelings towards different governments:
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In April 1997, our survey series on people's feelings towards different governments began. The wordings used in the questionnaire were "On a whole, do you have positive or negative feelings towards XXX government?" We first measured people's feelings towards the Hong Kong, Mainland, British, Taiwanese, Japanese and American governments. Surveys were conducted twice every year at irregular intervals, and after a pause in 2001, we rescheduled our surveys in 2002 to once a year. It has remained unchanged until the end of 2006. As for people's feelings towards the Canadian, Australian, Russian, Indian, Filipino, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Singaporean and Macau governments, we began our survey in September 1997 using the same wordings, but our schedule was to conduct one survey every year. Except for 2001 when no survey was conducted, our schedule has remained unchanged until the end of 2006, except for Macau. We first measured people's feeling towards the Macau government in 1997, then stopped, and resumed our survey in 2004 once very year.
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Starting from 2007, this survey series is conducted twice every year and is divided into two stages, i.e. naming survey and opinion survey. In the naming survey, question wordings used are "Other than the HKSAR, Mainland, Macau and Taiwan governments, please name up to 10 governments with which you are most familiar" while the wordings used in the opinion survey are "On a whole, do you have positive or negative feelings towards XXX government". Governments covered include the HKSAR, Mainland, Macau and Taiwan governments, together with those 12 which are mentioned most frequently in the naming stage.
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Regarding the sample size, from the beginning to 1999, the sample size of "people's feelings towards different governments" survey was set at slightly over 500, while beginning from 2000, it was increased to at least 1,000. As for "people's feelings towards the Macau government, since 2004, the sample size has been changed from slightly over 500 to at least 1,000.
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The findings of our surveys on "people's feelings towards the Mainland, British and HKSAR governments" conducted in 1998 and 1999 had been published in our newsletter POP Express, and have also been uploaded on-line at our HKU POP Site. As for the other figures, they are released via our HKU POP Site as well.
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