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A telephone survey was conducted from 8 December to 15 December, 2020 by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to study the popularity of the HKSAR Government. The major findings are summarised as follows:

Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government.  According to the current survey in December 2020, 15.8% of the 709 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 62.5% said they were dissatisfied, and 21.2% answered ‘in-between’.  The corresponding figures for November 2020 were 16.4%, 61.9%, and 21.1%, respectively.  The statistical analysis shows that the results for December 2020 were insignificantly different from those of November 2020.  When comparing the figures with those from the same month last year (i.e. December 2019), it was found that the difference in percentage distribution between December 2020 and December 2019 was statistically significant.

Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.  The survey in December 2020 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 25.6 on average, slightly lower than the rating for November 2020 (26.1).  The statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in December 2020 and the rating in November 2020 was statistically insignificant.  When comparing her current rating (25.6) with that of December 2019 (22.2), the mean difference of the two months was statistically significant, indicating a significant increase of the rating between the two years.

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 December 2020 were 26.9, 30.2 and 19.9 respectively.  The corresponding figures in November 2020 were 27.7, 31.5 and 20.4.  The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between December 2020 and November 2020 did not find any statistically significant differences.  When their ratings in December 2020 were compared with the respective figures in December 2019, except for the Chief Secretary for Administration, statistically significant differences were found for the Financial Secretary and the Secretary for Justice, showing that both of their ratings in December 2020 were significantly higher than those in December 2019.

Trust in the HKSAR Government.  As of December 2020, 18.9% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 54.6% expressed distrust; 25.2% answered ‘in-between’.  The results in November 2020 were 19.2%, 53.4%, and 26.7%, respectively.  No statistically significant difference was found in trust in the HKSAR Government between December 2020 and November 2020.  Also, when comparing the figure in the current survey with those of December 2019, the difference between the percentages in December 2020 (Trust: 18.9%; Distrust: 54.6%) and the percentages in December 2019 (Trust: 14.8%; Distrust: 59.0%) was observed to be statistically insignificant.

Trust in the Central Government.  Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in December 2020, 15.4% said they trusted it, 57.0% answered the opposite, and 23.9% said ‘in-between’.  The respective figures from November 2020 were 14.8%, 56.5%, and 25.9%.  No statistically significant difference was found between December 2020 and November 2020.  And the difference between the percentages in December 2020 (Trust: 15.4%; Distrust: 57.0%) and the percentages in December 2019 (Trust: 13.7%; Distrust: 58.4%) was also found to be statistically insignificant.

In conclusion, the current survey results in December 2020 indicate that the public satisfaction level of the government performance, the performance rating of the Chief Executive and the three Secretaries, and even the trust in the HKSAR Government and the Central Government were not significantly different from those in November 2020 (statistical significance test shows the differences are insignificant).  When compared with the same month of the previous year, the level of satisfaction with the government performance, the performance ratings of Chief Executive, Financial Secretary and the Secretary for Justice in December 2020 were significantly higher than those in December 2019; while the performance rating of the Chief Secretary for Administration, the trust in the HKSAR Government and the Central Government were not significantly different between December 2020 and December 2019.

The survey employed a dual-frame sampling design that included both landline and mobile phone numbers.  A total of 709 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 361; mobile: 348) were successfully interviewed, with response rates of 34.9% (landline) and 33.8% (mobile).  The sampling error for the sample size of 709 is estimated at plus or minus 3.68 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.  Furthermore, the data of this survey was weighted based on the probability of the respondents being selected via dual-frame sampling design and relevant age-sex distribution of the population published by the Census and Statistics Department before analysis.