HKU POP SITE today releases latest survey findings of WorldPublicOpinion.org – on people's opinions towards the demand and performance of their respective governments in ensuring people's need for food, healthcare and educationBack
| Press Release on November 11, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Latest Figures | Inivted Commentary from Hong Kong | Inivted Commentary from Macau | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract WouldPublicOpinion.org (or WPO) interviewed 21,321 people in 24 regions worldwide between July 15 and September 26. The survey finds that large majorities in every nation say their government should be responsible for ensuring that citizens can meet their basic needs for food, healthcare, and education. On average, across all nations polled, 9 in 10 say that their government has the responsibility to ensure access to food, healthcare, and education. Steven Kull, Director of WPO comments, 「Clearly there is universal consensus that governments have a responsibility to address the social and economic needs of their citizens.」 Invited commentator from Hong Kong Dr John Chuan-Tiong Lim of Harvard University observes, 「Peoples from the four areas in the Greater China Region think that the government is responsible for fulfilling people's needs, and based on the result of the survey, the proportion is above world average. This implicates that peoples in the Greater China Region have a higher expectation on their government than peoples in other countries.」 Director of MacauPublicOpinion at University of Macau Professor Hao Yufan and Coordinator of MacauPublicOpinion Dr Angus Weng-Hin Cheong observe, 「The research revealed that although the political system and cultural living of different regions in the Greater China Region have existing differences, people's demand on the governments' caretaking is the same. Their demands are greater than the world averages. The people of the four regions are still reserved about their governments' performances, especially in areas of healthcare and education. The governments of the four regions do need to face these opinions and make improvements.」 The margins of error of WPO surveys conducted around the world are controlled to the range of +/-2 to 4 percentage points. Points to note: * The Chinese website of "WorldPublicOpinion.org" is located at http://wpo.hkpop.hk and its English website is located at http://worldpublicopinion.org. * Since there are sampling errors in the survey, the figures cannot be too accurate. When quoting percentages, journalists should refrain from reporting decimal places. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Latest Figures POP today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) and "World Opinion Platform" (http://wpo.hkpop.hk) the latest figures of WouldPublicOpinion.org, which reflect people's opinions towards the demand and appraisal of their respective governments in ensuring people's need for food, healthcare and education. Herewith the contact information for the latest survey:
Herewith the results of people in Greater China Region (GCR) and Hong Kong compared with those in other countries. The theme is whether the government should be responsible or not. For other figures and contact information, please refer to "World Opinion Platform": *
Herewith the results of people in GCR and Hong Kong compared with those in other countries. The theme is the appraisal of the government's performance. For other figures and contact information, please refer to "World Opinion Platform": *
Results of latest survey showed that the GCR averages of those who thought the government should be responsible for ensuring that its citizens can meet their basic need for food, healthcare and education are all higher than the world averages. Percentages of people in the four regions who thought the government should be responsible for ensuring its citizens can meet their basic need for food range from 92% to 96%, while the GCR average is 7 percentage points higher than the world average. Regarding healthcare, percentages of those who thought it is the responsilibity of government to ensure its citizens can meet their basic need in the four regions range from 94% to 99%, while GCR average is 4 percentage points higher than the world average. As for believing the government should be responsible for ensuring its citizens can meet their basic needs for education, the percentages of the four regions range from 95% to 98%, and the GCR average is 6 percentage points higher than the world average. Regarding the government's performance in ensuring its citizens' access of food, healthcare and education, views of the four regions varied. As for food, the highest satisfaction rate of the government is in Mainland, followed by Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. GCR average in positive rating is 21 percentage points higher than the world average. Regarding healthcare, people in Taiwan gave the highest satisfaction rating to their government, followed by those in Mainland. Macau and Hong Kong people's satisfaction rate to their government are mediocre. The GCR average of positive ratings is 14 percentage points higher than the world average. As for education, people in Macau gave the highest satisfaction rate to their government, followed by Mainland people, while the views of people in Hong Kong and Taiwan are divided. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Inivted Commentary from Hong Kong Invited commentator from Hong Kong Dr John Chuan-Tiong Lim, Fulbright Scholar at Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies of Harvard University (email address: [email protected]), analyzes the survey results as follows: Food, health care and education are three indispensible essences of modern human life, they are still the focus of global concern in this 21st century. Peoples from the four areas in the Greater China Region think that the government is responsible for fulfilling people's needs, and based on the result of the survey, the proportion is above world average. This implicates that peoples in the Greater China Region have a higher expectation on their government than peoples in other countries. However, the statistics show an obvious divergence among the four areas in the region. Although, due to the differences in economics, politics, living standard and openness of media, a direct comparison among them may not be suitable, we can still examine the social background factors involved through a comprehensive analysis of the problems. First, the statistics show that an apparently higher proportion of people in mainland China is satisfied with their government than the average proportion of the other regions in the Greater China Region. This may be related to two characteristics of mainland China. First, with the onset of economic reform in 1978, the living standard of mainlanders has improved greatly in the past three decades. The feeling of a continuously upgrading society has been among the public. On the contrary, such a feeling is lacking in the other three areas. Secondly, due to the strict control and censorship of information in mainland China, the mainlanders are unable to access comprehensive and objective reports with negative news on food, health care and education, and also not able to know the situations in Hong Kong, in Macau and in Taiwan. They therefore cannot make comparisons. Morever, there are also factors specific to separate issues of food, health care and education. On the issue of basic food supply, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan all register a government satisfaction rate of 50 to 60 percent, which is far less than the 90 percent registered in the mainland. The reasons should be related to the recent soar of food price in the world, which greatly affects Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan as all of them rely heavily on imported food. On the issue of health care, the Taiwan public has an obviously higher satisfaction rate than Hong Kong and Macau. Taiwan has been running a national health insurance system that follows the Japanese system for many years. People give credit to the government for establishing such a system, which is reflected in the survey results. However in Hong Kong or in Macau, such a system is still under exploration. As on the issue of education, there are only around 45 percent of people in Hong Kong and in Taiwan satisfied with government performance. This is related to the argument and chaos caused by changes in their education system. That Hong Kong is still adhering to its examination-oriented education system, and that former Education Minister Tu Cheng-Sheng in Taiwan stirred up lots of criticisms and disputes during his leadership, are important background factors of the issue. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Inivted Commentary from Macau Professor Hao Yufan, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of University of Macau and Research Director of MacauPublicOpinion, and Dr Angus Weng-Hin Cheong, Assistant Professor of Department of Communication of University of Macau and Research Coordinator of MacauPublicOpinion (email address: [email protected]) analyze the survey results as follows: Our participation in such global academic research project is a way to show that the research done in the University of Macau can be matched with other global institutions and our academic level has been rising. Putting the research results in a global framework and using the vision of the Greater China Region as analysis make the research result both broad and in-depth. The research revealed that although the political system and cultural living of different regions in the Greater China Region have existing differences, people's demand on the governments' caretaking is the same. Their demands are greater than the world averages. The people of the four regions are still reserved about their governments' performances, especially in areas of healthcare and education. The governments of the four regions do need to face these opinions and make improvements. People in Mainland, Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan have high demands on their respective governments, thinking that it is responsible for ensuring the food, healthcare and education needs. Their percentages are higher than the global averages. This seems to reflect a higher demand and anticipation of people in the Greater China Region in their governments' ability to provide food, healthcare and education support. Besides, the data implies that people of these four places have more or less the same demands to the government in terms of basic food needs. This reflects that getting adequate food to avoid hunger is a basic need in the Chinese society, especially for the people in Mainland. Their approval on the government is much higher than the other three places. This may be due to the fact that Mainland has priority policies to eliminate hunger and stress them in a long term. Respondents in Macau have higher demands in the government's responsibility of fulfilling basic healthcare needs. The proportion of its positive ratings are far behind the ratings of the people in Mainland and Taiwan, with positive ratings slightly more than half, barely higher than those in Hong Kong. While Macau citizens have very high hopes for the government to ensure their healthcare needs, they are also more disappointed by it. In contrast, the Mainland and Taiwanese government are more able to meet peoples' demands in terms of healthcare needs. Whether it is related to governments providing better healthcare security and charging lower fees requires further investigation. In terms of education, over 70% of respondents in both Macau and Mainland are satisfied with the governments' performances. This may be due to the implementation of the policy of 15-year free education in Macau. As for Mainland, after over 30 years of efforts in reform, basic education is basically secured, so naturally people give a more positive appraisal towards the government. As for the interviewees in Hong Kong and Taiwan, only about 45% of them rate the government positively. This may be due to the implementation of mother-tongue teaching and the controversy of the education policy of Desinicization. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other Commentaries WorldPublicOpinion.org comments, "a new poll of 21 nations around the world finds that large majorities in every nation say their government should be responsible for ensuring that citizens can meet their basic needs for food, healthcare, and education. On average, across all nations polled, nine in 10 say that their government has the responsibility to ensure access to food, healthcare, and education". Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org comments, "Clearly there is universal consensus that governments have a responsibility to address the social and economic needs of their citizens". (For details please go to the website of WPO at http://www.worldpublicopinion.org.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Additional Information: About WPO WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) was initiated and managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, USA. At present WPO consists of research centers from over 20 countries or regions including Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland and Taiwan (together called Greater China Region). Apart from conducting the Hong Kong part of WPO survey, the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong is also responsible for designing and maintaining the Chinese homepage of the WPO at http://wpo.hkpop.hk, which can be accessed via the HKU POP Site at http://hkupop.pori.hk. Besides, POP is also responsible for coordinating the polls in the Greater China Region, and will follow the rhythm of the WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) to globally release the Chinese versions of WPO's press releases regularly. We welcome questions for follow-up purpose, please email them to us at [email protected]. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| | Abstract | Latest Figures | Inivted Commentary from Hong Kong | Inivted Commentary from Macau | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
