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A telephone survey was conducted from 19 to 23, 2020 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 518 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 39.8%.  The sampling error is estimated at plus or minus 4.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Major findings are summarised as follows:

Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government.  According to the current survey in March 2020, 16.0% of the 518 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 64.3% said they were dissatisfied, and 19.5% answered ‘in-between’.  The corresponding figures for January 2020 were 11.4%, 67.0%, and 21.2%, respectively.  The statistical analysis shows that the results for March 2020 were not significantly different from those of January 2020[1].  However, when comparing the figures with that from the same month last year (i.e. March 2019), it was found that the percentage of satisfaction in March 2020 (16.0%) was substantially lower than that of March 2019 (28.9%).  The difference in percentage distribution between March 2020 and March 2019 was statistically significant.

Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.  The survey in March 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 25.0 on average, higher than the rating for January 2020 (23.4).  The statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in March 2020 and the rating in January 2020 was statistically insignificant.  But, when comparing her current rating (25.0) with that of March 2019 (53.0), 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 March 2020 were 29.1, 30.0 and 17.4 respectively.  The corresponding figures in January 2020 were 28.9, 27.1 and 16.3.  The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between March 2020 and January 2020 shows that statistically significant differences were not found.  When their ratings in March 2020 were compared with the respective figures in March 2019, statistically significant differences were found for all of the three Secretaries.

Trust in the HKSAR Government.  As of March 2020, 17.8% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 55.8% expressed distrust; 25.3% answered ‘in-between’.  The results in January 2020 were 15.5%, 57.7%, and 25.0%, respectively.  There was no statistically significant difference being found in trust in the HKSAR Government between March 2020 and January 2020.  However, when comparing the figure in the current survey with those of March 2019, the statistically significant difference between the percentages in March 2020 (Trust: 17.8%; Distrust: 55.8%) and the percentages in March 2019 (Trust: 29.6%; Distrust: 27.0%) was observed.

Trust in the Central Government.  Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in March 2020, 18.4% said they trusted it, 57.8% answered the opposite, and 19.4% said ‘in-between’.  The respective figures from January 2020 were 14.6%, 57.9%, and 22.1%.  No statistically significant difference was found between March 2020 and January 2020.  But the difference between the percentages in March 2020 (Trust: 18.4%; Distrust: 57.8%) and the percentages in March 2019 (Trust: 23.6%; Distrust: 37.6%) was found to be statistically significant.