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Survey Findings on HKSAR Government’s Popularity in July 2019 Released by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK
A telephone survey was conducted from 19 to 30 July 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 752 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 37.1%. The sampling error is estimated at plus or minus 3.57 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Major findings are summarised as follows:
Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government. According to the survey, 15.3% of the 752 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 63.0% said they were dissatisfied, and 21.0% answered ‘in-between’. The corresponding figures for June 2019 were 18.4%, 60.4%, and 19.8%, respectively. The statistical analysis shows that the results for July 2019 were insignificantly different from those of June 2019. But, when comparing the figures with that from the same month last year (i.e. July 2018), it was found that the percentage of satisfaction in July 2019 (15.3%) was substantially lower than that of July 2018 (33.0%). The difference in percentage distribution between July 2019 and July 2018 was statistically significant.
Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The survey in July 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 32.9 on average, significantly lower than the rating for June (37.5). The statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in July 2019 and the rating in June 2019 was statistically significant. Also, when comparing her current rating (32.9) with that of July 2018 (56.7), 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 July 2019 were 35.4, 32.3 and 24.1 respectively. The corresponding figures in June 2019 were 37.0, 34.4 and 26.8. The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between July 2019 and June 2019 shows that except the Secretary for Justice, statistically significant differences were not found for the Chief Secretary for Administration and the Financial Secretary. When their ratings in July 2019 were compared with the respective figures in July 2018, statistically significant differences were found for all of three Secretaries.
Trust in the HKSAR Government. As of July 2019, 21.0% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 53.3% expressed distrust; 24.2% answered ‘in-between’. The results in June 2019 were 22.1%, 48.9%, and 26.9%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in trust in the HKSAR Government between July 2019 and June 2019. However, when comparing the figure in the current survey with those of July 2018, it shows that the percentage of trust in the HKSAR Government in July 2019 (21.0%) was substantially lower than that of July 2018 (33.2%), 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 July 2019, 16.0% said they trusted it, 56.3% answered the opposite, and 24.4% said ‘in-between’. The respective figures from June were 17.4%, 54.7%, and 24.2%. Statistically significant differences were not found between July 2019 and June 2019. But the difference between the percentages in July 2019 (Trust: 16.0%; Distrust: 56.3%) and the percentages in July 2018 (Trust: 24.4%; Distrust: 36.3%) was found statistically significant.
