CUHK
News Centre

A telephone survey was conducted from 20 May to 27 May, 2021 by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) 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 May 2021, 14.9% of the 705 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 54.9% said they were dissatisfied, and 29.2% answered ‘in-between’.  The corresponding figures for April 2021 were 14.0%, 58.3%, and 26.5%, respectively.  The statistical analysis shows that the results for May 2021 were not statistically significant different from those of April 2021.  However, when comparing the figures with those from May 2020, the difference in percentage distribution between May 2021 and May 2020 was found statistically significant.

Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.  The survey in May 2021 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 30.0 on average, slightly higher than the rating for April 2021 (28.4).  However, the statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in May 2021 and the rating in April 2021 was not statistically significant.  When comparing her current rating (30.0) with that of May 2020 (22.2), the mean difference of the two months was found 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 May 2021 were 29.6, 32.4 and 21.9 respectively.  The corresponding figures in April 2021 were 28.0, 31.7 and 20.9.  The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between May 2021 and April 2021 did not find any statistically significant differences.  When their ratings in May 2021 were compared with the respective figures in May 2020, it was statistically significant.

Trust in the HKSAR Government.  As of May 2021, 16.9% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 47.7% expressed distrust; 32.9% answered ‘in-between’.  The results in April 2021 were 16.5%, 51.4%, and 30.2%, respectively.  No statistically significant difference was found in trust in the HKSAR Government between May 2021 and April 2021.  When comparing the figure in the current survey with those of May 2020, the difference between the percentages in May 2021 (Trust: 16.9%; Distrust: 47.7%) and the percentages in May 2020 (Trust: 15.6%; Distrust: 60.5%) was observed to be statistically significant. 

Trust in the Central Government.  Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in May 2021, 18.7% said they trusted it, 54.1% answered the opposite, and 23.9% said ‘in-between’.  The respective figures from April 2021 were 17.5%, 56.7%, and 23.6%.  No statistically significant difference was found between May 2021 and April 2021.  The difference between the percentages in May 2021 (Trust: 18.7%; Distrust: 54.1%) and those of May 2020 (Trust: 13.7%; Distrust: 68.2%) was found statistically significant.

In conclusion, the current survey results in May 2021 indicate that all the popularity indices (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 April 2021 (significance test shows the differences are not statistically significant).  However, when compared with the survey conducted in May 2020, all the other popularity indices were detected significantly different (significance test shows the differences are all statistically significant).

The survey employed a dual-frame sampling design that included both landline and mobile phone numbers.  A total of 705 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 347; mobile: 358) were successfully interviewed, with response rates of 29.1% (landline) and 30.1% (mobile).  The sampling error for the sample size of 705 is estimated at plus or minus 3.69 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.