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Survey Findings on HKSAR Government’s Popularity in August 2019Released by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK
A telephone survey was conducted from 21 to 27 August 2019 by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to study the popularity of the HKSAR Government. A total of 716 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 37.4%. The sampling error is estimated at plus or minus 3.66 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Major findings are summarised as follows:
Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government. According to the survey, 11.2% of the 716 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 65.5% said they were dissatisfied, and 22.8% answered ‘in-between’. The corresponding figures for July 2019 were 15.3%, 63.0%, and 21.0%, respectively. The statistical analysis shows that the results for August 2019 were not significantly different from those of July 2019. Nevertheless, when comparing the figures with that from the same month last year (i.e. August 2018), it was found that the percentage of satisfaction in August 2019 (11.2%) was substantially lower than that of August 2018 (31.3%). The difference in percentage distribution between August 2019 and August 2018 was statistically significant.
Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The survey in August 2019 indicated that the performance rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam (with a point scale ranging from 0 to 100, 50 as the passing mark) stood at 28.4 on average, lower than the rating for July (32.9). The statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in August 2019 and the rating in July 2019 was statistically significant. Also, when comparing her current rating (28.4) with that of August 2018 (56.2), the mean difference of the two months was statistically significant.
Ratings of Three Secretaries. The ratings of the Chief Secretary for Administration (Matthew Cheung), Financial Secretary (Paul Chan) and Secretary for Justice (Teresa Cheng) in August 2019 were 32.9, 29.8 and 20.3 respectively. The corresponding figures in July 2019 were 35.4, 32.3 and 24.1. The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between August 2019 and July 2019 shows that except for the Secretary for Justice, statistically significant differences were not found for the Chief Secretary for Administration and the Financial Secretary. When their ratings in August 2019 were compared with the respective figures in August 2018, statistically significant differences were found for all of the three Secretaries.
Trust in the HKSAR Government. As of August 2019, 17.7% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 54.6% expressed distrust; 25.6% answered ‘in-between’. The results in July 2019 were 21.0%, 53.3%, and 24.2%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in trust in the HKSAR Government between August 2019 and July 2019. However, when comparing the figure in the current survey with those of August 2018, it shows that the percentage of trust in the HKSAR Government in August 2019 (17.7%) was substantially lower than that of August 2018 (31.8%), and statistically significant difference was found between these two months.
Trust in the Central Government. Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in August 2019, 15.1% said they trusted it, 57.5% answered the opposite, and 21.7% said ‘in-between’. The respective figures from July were 16.0%, 56.3%, and 24.4%. No statistically significant difference was found between August 2019 and July 2019. But the difference between the percentages in August 2019 (Trust: 15.1%; Distrust: 57.5%) and the percentages in August 2018 (Trust: 22.5%; Distrust: 36.7%) was found to be statistically significant.
