HKU POP SITE today releases latest survey findings of WorldPublicOpinion.org – on people's opinions towards the morality of their country's foreign policyBack

Press Release on January 23, 2009

Abstract

WouldPublicOpinion.org (or WPO) interviewed 21,618 people in 24 regions worldwide between July 15 and September 26, 2008. The survey finds that large majorities in every nation assess the morality of their country's foreign policy about average or below average. Yet, when asked to assess the morality of other major nations, people around the world tend to feel that all of the major nations are about average. Steven Kull, Director of WPO comments, "People around the world may actually be more realistic than is often assumed" 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://www.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 morality of their country's foreign policy. Herewith the contact information for the latest survey:

Date of survey	Overall sample size	Margin of error
Varies on 15/7-26/9/2008	21,618	Less than +/-4% in each region

Herewith the results of people in Greater China Region (GCR) and countries well-known to Hong Kong people. The theme is the morality of countries' foreign policy. For other figures and contact information, please refer to "World Opinion Platform": *

Date of survey	15/7-26/9/2008
Sample base	Ranges from 583-2,223
Do you think that, compared to other countries, the morality of [Country's] foreign policy is above average, about average, or below average?	Above average	About average	Below average	Depends / DK/HS	Total
Greater China Region average	23%	45%	19%	14%	100%
Hong Kong	16%	52%	23%	9%	100%
Macau	20%	42%	21%	17%	100%
Mainland	38%	36%	8%	19%	100%
Taiwan	19%	48%	25%	9%	100%
United States of America	24%	49%	16%	11%	100%
Britain	17%	49%	23%	11%	100%
France	19%	66%	13%	2%	100%
Thailand	22%	30%	13%	36%	100%
Germany	29%	60%	5%	5%	100%
South Korea	10%	46%	42%	2%	100%
World average	23%	42%	21%	14%	100%
Do you think that, compared to other countries, the morality of China's foreign policy is above average, about average, or below average?	Above average	About average	Below average	Depends / DK/HS	Total
Greater China Region average	20%	40%	26%	16%	100%
Hong Kong	16%	52%	23%	9%	100%
Macau	20%	42%	21%	17%	100%
Mainland	38%	36%	8%	19%	100%
Taiwan	4%	28%	50%	19%	100%
United States of America	4%	27%	57%	12%	100%
Britain	5%	18%	53%	24%	100%
France	5%	28%	60%	6%	100%
Thailand	8%	35%	10%	46%	100%
Germany	3%	25%	58%	14%	100%
South Korea	6%	37%	53%	5%	100%
World average (without Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland)	14%	33%	29%	23%	100%
Do you think that, compared to other countries, the morality of America's foreign policy is above average, about average, or below average?	Above average	About average	Below average	Depends / DK/HS	Total
Greater China Region average	27%	33%	21%	20%	100%
Hong Kong	21%	38%	30%	12%	100%
Macau	30%	27%	22%	20%	100%
Mainland	24%	21%	22%	34%	100%
Taiwan	33%	44%	10%	12%	100%
United States of America	24%	49%	16%	11%	100%
Britain	9%	46%	28%	17%	100%
France	15%	51%	30%	4%	100%
Thailand	14%	28%	14%	44%	100%
Germany	5%	33%	55%	7%	100%
South Korea	25%	43%	28%	3%	100%
World average (without US)	21%	30%	31%	18%	100%
Do you think that, compared to other countries, the morality of France's foreign policy is above average, about average, or below average?	Above average	About average	Below average	Depends / DK/HS	Total
Greater China Region average	21%	34%	10%	36%	100%
Hong Kong	20%	40%	15%	25%	100%
Macau	19%	33%	9%	40%	100%
Mainland	16%	23%	11%	51%	100%
Taiwan	30%	40%	3%	28%	100%
United States of America	8%	57%	21%	14%	100%
Britain	12%	49%	12%	27%	100%
France	19%	66%	13%	2%	100%
Thailand	9%	31%	9%	52%	100%
Germany	12%	65%	10%	13%	100%
South Korea	31%	45%	6%	19%	100%
World average (without France)	18%	40%	15%	27%	100%
Do you think that, compared to other countries, the morality of Russia's foreign policy is above average, about average, or below average?	Above average	About average	Below average	Depends / DK/HS	Total
Greater China Region average	9%	31%	25%	37%	100%
Hong Kong	4%	29%	40%	28%	100%
Macau	7%	30%	23%	40%	100%
Mainland	20%	26%	7%	48%	100%
Taiwan	4%	37%	28%	31%	100%
United States of America	2%	34%	51%	14%	100%
Britain	3%	20%	47%	31%	100%
France	3%	30%	57%	10%	100%
Thailand	4%	28%	14%	54%	100%
Germany	3%	38%	43%	15%	100%
South Korea	6%	47%	31%	17%	100%
World average (without Russia)	11%	32%	29%	28%	100%
Do you think that, compared to other countries, the morality of Britain's foreign policy is above average, about average, or below average?	Above average	About average	Below average	Depends / DK/HS	Total
Greater China Region average	31%	34%	8%	28%	100%
Hong Kong	29%	46%	11%	16%	100%
Macau	31%	33%	8%	28%	100%
Mainland	20%	23%	9%	48%	100%
Taiwan	44%	35%	3%	18%	100%
United States of America	23%	56%	8%	13%	100%
Britain	17%	49%	23%	11%	100%
France	19%	65%	11%	5%	100%
Thailand	17%	31%	7%	45%	100%
Germany	11%	69%	9%	11%	100%
South Korea	39%	45%	6%	10%	100%
World average (without Britain)	23%	38%	16%	24%	100%

*Except Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland and Taiwan, the other regions are those best known to Hong Kong people. According to the survey conducted by POP on May 2-6, 2008, the 10 regions best known to Hong Kong people are the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Canada, Germany and South Korea. Among these regions, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Thailand, Germany and South Korea participated in this current survey. For details of survey on people's best known regions, please refer to the press release on May 20, 2008 at the "HKU POP SITE". The figures for Greater China Region are calculated based on the survey results of Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland and Taiwan. While different from the calculation of WPO, the findings of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are included in figures for world average.

Results of latest survey showed that opinions of people in GCR towards the morality of their country's foreign policy are similar to that of the overall world public, with most of the people believed it is "about average". The percentages of publics in the four GCR regions thought the morality of their country's foreign policy was "above average" range from 16% in Hong Kong to 38% in Mainland, while those of "about average" range from 36% in Mainland to 52% in Hong Kong and those of "below average" range from 8% in Mainland to 25% in Taiwan.

Regarding the morality of China's foreign policy, compared to people from Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland, opinions of public from the rest of the world generally tend to be more negative. Excluding people in these three regions, around one-third of the world average thought the morality of China's foreign policy was "about average", while percentage of those opted for "below average" doubles that of "above average".

As for the morality of America's foreign policy, compared to the world average, higher percentage of GCR public opted for "above average" and "about average". As for the morality of France's and Britain's foreign policy, opinions of GCR public are similar to those of the rest of the world, which they inclined to think that is "above average" and "about average". On the other hand, opinions of GCR public towards the morality of Russia's foreign policy are similar to those of the world public, which they inclined to think the morality of its foreign policy was "below average" and "about average".

Related Commentary

WorldPublicOpinion.org comments, "A new poll of 21 nations around the world finds that people can be remarkably modest. When asked to assess the morality of their country's foreign policy, in 19 out of 21 countries the most common answer is that their country is about average or below average. In just two countries do more people say that their country is above average than say it is average or below average—but even here less than half are so self-confident. Asked to assess the morality of other major nations, people around the world tend to feel that all of the major nations are about average." Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org comments, "People around the world may actually be more realistic than is often assumed." (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].