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In January 2007, POP opened a feature page called "Opinion Daily" at the "POP Site", to record significant events and selected polling figures on a day-to-day basis. Our purpose is to provide readers with accurate information so that they can judge by themselves the reasons for the ups and downs of different opinion figures. When "Opinion Daily" began to operate on January 17, 2007, it only contained significant events and popularity figures of the Chief Executive over the past few months. As of today, it contains a chronology of events starting from May 1, 2006, and many poll figures registered since January 1, 2006. Readers can now check on the results of 9 different polling items compiled by POP, including the popularity of the Chief Executive, the HKSAR government, and the Secretaries of Departments under the accountability system. In near future, the content of "Opinion Daily" will continue to expand, in order to promote the science of opinion polling.
In July 2007, POP collaborated with Wisers Information Limited whereby Wisers supplies to POP since July 24 each day a record of significant events of that day, according to the research method designed by POP. These daily entries would be uploaded to the "Opinion Daily" feature page as soon as they are verified by POP, in order to provide readers with swifter and more accurate information.
In August 2007, POP began to include in its regular press releases a list of significant events which happened in between two surveys, so that readers can make their own judgment on whether these events have any effect on the ups and downs of the polling figures. This press release is no exception.
For the polling items covered in this press release, the previous survey was conducted from September 4 to 7, 2007 while this survey was conducted from December 11 to 14, 2007. During this period, only one significant event could be identified by counting stories covered by at least 25% of the newspaper headlines plus commentaries on a certain day. Readers can make their own judgment if this or other events reported in our "Opinion Daily" have any impact on different polling figures:
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Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Our survey shows that Hong Kong people's opposition to the independence of Taiwan, to its attempt to rejoin the United Nations, and their belief that 'one country, two systems' is applicable to Taiwan, have not changed much over the past 3 months. They remain to be the majority view. Hong Kong people's confidence in the ultimate reunification across the strait, however, has dropped 5 percentage points. This significant drop was probably caused by the recent 'Eradication of Chiang Kai-shek Presence' and 'Eradication of Chinese Influence' Campaigns taking place in Taiwan. According to records in our 'Opinion Daily', local newspapers rarely use cross-strait stories as headlines, meaning that there is little media attention to events happening in Taiwan. Hong Kong people's knowledge of Taiwan may, therefore, be very limited."
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 December 21, 2007, Friday, between 1pm and 2pm, when the findings of the follow-up polls on the District Council elections and the Legislative Council by-election for the Hong Kong Island Geographical Constituency will be released. Besides, as next Tuesday is a public holiday, POP Site will release our survey result on December 27, 2007, Thursday, between 1pm and 2pm, when the latest findings of people's opinions towards ethnic identity 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 <[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.
Since January 2006, 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".
About HKUPOP
Taiwan issues
Be it under British colonial rule or under "one country, two systems", Hong Kong has always been part of China. It thus seems natural for HKUPOP to survey people's opinion on Chinese national and ethnical issues, if we can squeeze some resources. This is exactly what we did, when we embarked on conducting the regular surveys on Taiwan issues and the appraisal of deceased Chinese leaders long time ago. We have explained the development of the Taiwan issues surveys in our press releases of September 19, 2006, March 15, June 22 and September 18, 2007. Today, we release it again so that readers can have a more comprehensive picture of such development.
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Two years after HKUPOP was established, in June 1993, we began our regular surveys on Hong Kong people's views on different Taiwan issues. They include: Taiwan independence, Taiwan joining the United Nations, Hong Kong people's trust of the Taiwan government, and people's confidence in cross-strait reunification. By 1996, shortly before Hong Kong's handover, whether "one country, two systems" should be equally applicable to Taiwan or not became a talking point for peoples across the Strait. HKUPOP therefore added it to the pool of tracking questions. Starting from April 2000, the survey was conducted once every two months but in June 2000, its frequency was changed to once every three months to cope with the social conditions.
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In terms of wording, the 4 questions used in the questionnaire are "Are you confident in the ultimate reunification of Taiwan and Mainland China?", "Do you agree to Taiwan rejoining the United Nations?", "Do you agree to Taiwan becoming independent?" and "Do you think "One country, two systems" is applicable to Taiwan?"
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Regarding sample size, from the beginning to April 2000, the sample size of Taiwan issues survey was set at slightly over 500. From June 2000 onwards, it was increased to at least 1,000.
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Our first findings of Taiwan issues surveys in May 1997 or before were published in our newsletter POP Express. After our HKU POP Site was established in June 2000, the issues on Taiwan independence and cross-trait reunification were released online. The findings on the applicability of "one country, two systems" in Taiwan and its rejoining the United Nations were released online since June 2004 and March 2005, respectively. All previous findings published in our POP Express were also uploaded on-line in various formats.
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