HKU POP SITE today releases latest survey findings of WorldPublicOpinion.org – on publics' opinion on International Law and World CourtBack

Press Release on November 4, 2009

Abstract

WouldPublicOpinion.org (or WPO) interviewed 20,202 people in 24 regions worldwide between April 4 and July 9, 2009. The survey finds that most people in 17 of 21 nations surveyed say their government should abide by international law and reject the view that governments are not obliged to follow such laws when they conflict with the national interest. Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org comments, "it appears that publics around the world show a fairly strong internationalist orientation. Most favor subordinating national interest to international law and are ready to trust the World Court to be impartial." Invited commentator from Hong Kong Dr John Chuan-Tiong Lim observes, "With the more vibrant globalization and intense cross-border activities, there are more and more related articles regarding the International Laws… the wish of the Mainlanders to enjoy the rule of law reflects people's expectations on China's development in the next phase, as well as their wish to be connected to the world, after society opens up, and their living standard improves. This calls for more attention" The margins of error of WPO surveys conducted around the world are controlled to the range of +/-3 to 4 percentage points.

Points to note:

* The Chinese website of "WorldPublicOpinion.org" is located at http://wpo.hkpop.hkand 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 on international law and world court. Herewith the contact information for the latest survey:

Date of survey	Overall sample size	Margin of error
Varies on 4/4-9/7/2009	20,202	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 people's views on international law and world court, please refer to "World Opinion Platform": *

Date of survey	4/4-9/7/2009
Sample base	Ranges from 500 to 1,235
Q1. As you may know there are a number of international laws based on agreements between most nations, including our own. These govern a wide set of issues ranging from fishing rights to the use of military force. Which of these two views is closer to yours?	A. Our nation should consistently follow international laws. It is wrong to violate international laws, just as it is wrong to violate laws within a country.	B. If our government thinks it is not in our nation's interest, it should not feel obliged to abide by international laws.	DK/NR	Total
Greater China Region average	60%	29%	11%	100%
Hong Kong	47%	38%	15%	100%
Macau	51%	37%	12%	100%
Mainland	74%	18%	8%	100%
Taiwan	68%	24%	8%	100%
United States of America	69%	29%	2%	100%
Britain	54%	43%	3%	100%
France	61%	35%	4%	100%
South Korea	56%	44%	1%	100%
Germany	70%	26%	4%	100%
World average	57%	35%	8%	100%

Q2. As compared to the average [Country/region citizen] would you say you are more supportive or less supportive of consistently abiding by international laws?	More supportive	Less supportive	About the same	Depends	DK/NR	Total
Greater China Region average	75%	6%	4%	4%	10%	100%
Hong Kong	70%	5%	10%	7%	8%	100%
Macau	73%	5%	1%	2%	18%	100%
Mainland	--	--	--	--	--	100%
Taiwan	83%	8%	0%	4%	5%	100%
United States of America	66%	30%	0%	0%	4%	100%
Britain	57%	29%	5%	1%	8%	100%
France	64%	21%	4%	5%	6%	100%
South Korea	--	--	--	--	--	100%
Germany	--	--	--	--	--	100%
World average	53%	24%	9%	6%	8%	100%

Q3. As you may know when there is a dispute about whether a country is abiding by international law, the case is tried in front of the International Court of Justice, also called the World Court. It is comprised of fifteen justices from around the world. If there were a case involving [country/ region], how confident are you the Court's decision would be fair and impartial? Would you say that you are:	Very confident	Some- what confident	Not very confident	Not at all confident	Depends	DK/NR	Total
Greater China Region average	15%	45%	23%	5%	4%	9%	100%
Hong Kong	14%	44%	23%	3%	5%	10%	100%
Macau	20%	45%	14%	4%	5%	12%	100%
Mainland	17%	45%	22%	4%	5%	7%	100%
Taiwan	10%	44%	31%	8%	--	7%	100%
United States of America	8%	49%	31%	11%	0%	1%	100%
Britain	13%	55%	23%	7%	1%	2%	100%
France	15%	54%	19%	6%	2%	4%	100%
South Korea	3%	37%	52%	7%	0%	1%	100%
Germany	29%	45%	17%	4%	2%	3%	100%
World average	16%	39%	25%	10%	4%	7%	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 5 to 7, 2009, the 10 regions best known to Hong Kong people are the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Australia, Canada, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea and Germany. Among these regions, the United States, United Kingdom, France, South Korea and Germany participated in this current survey. For details of survey on people's best known regions, please refer to the press release on May 19, 2009 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. Different from the calculation of WPO, the findings of these four regions are included in figures for world average.

Results of the latest survey showed that, 60% of the publics in GCR thought their nation should consistently follow international laws. They believe it is wrong to violate international laws, just as it is wrong to violate laws within a country. Only 29% thought if their government thinks it is not in our nation's interest, it should not feel obliged to abide by international laws. Beside, 75% publics in GCR believed that, as compared to the average citizens of their regions, they were more supportive of consistently abiding by international law, while only 6% thought they were less supportive and 4% chose "about the same". As regards the World Court, a respective of 15% and 45% said they were "very confident" and "somewhat confident" that the Court's decision would be fair and impartial shoud there be a dispute about whether a country is abiding by international law and the case is tried in front of the International Court of Justice. Those who said "not very confident" and "not at all confident" amounted to 23% and 5% correspondingly.

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:

With increasing vibrant globalization and intense cross-border activities, there are more and more provisions under international laws. The current world poll was conducted under such circumstance.

In the Greater China Region, focus of the poll was on the recognition of International Laws. The most interesting point to note is that 74% of Mainland respondents obliged to abide by International Laws, which is 27% higher than Hong Kong respondents, crowned as having the highest legal sense. On the other hand, when a conflict arises between one's national interest and the International Law, only 18% Mainlanders said they needed not abide by Internation Laws, which is 11% less than the GCR average.

For a long time, Mainland China has been criticized for not governing by the rule of law, having a backward legal system, and lacking independent law enforcement units. Moreover, having spoon-fed patriotism topdown, people are bound to place 'national interest' on the top priority. I elucidate the unanticipated results of this poll as follow:

1. With the onset of reform and the open-ups, Mainlanders find the lack of rule of law and partial law enforcement loathsome, they now recognize the essence of rule of law. Acknowledging that there is still a long way to go for the rule of law replacing the 'rule of man', Mainlanders are looking forward to this change desperately.

2. For the apparently low sense of commitment to abide by International Laws among Hong Kong citizens, it may be attributed to the design of the poll. The concept that 'our nation should consistently follow international laws…' may have caused confusions to Hong Kong respondents. We all know that Hong Kong and Mainland China have entirely different legal systems, so Hong Kong respondents might have found it difficult to position themselves when being answering a question which seemed unrelated to Hong Kong.

The wish of the Mainlanders to enjoy the rule of law reflects people's expectations on China's development in the next phase, as well as their wish to be connected to the world, after society opens up, and their living standard improves. This calls for more attention.

Other Commentary

Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org comments, "it appears that publics around the world show a fairly strong internationalist orientation. Most favor subordinating national interest to international law and are ready to trust the World Court to be impartial." (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].