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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)’s Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies conducted a telephone survey from 23 November to 9 December 2022 to study the popularity of the HKSAR government. The major findings are:

Satisfaction with the HKSAR government. In the November 2022 survey, 23.2% of the 703 respondents expressed satisfaction with the HKSAR government, 27.5% said they were dissatisfied and 46.5% answered “in-between”. The corresponding figures for September 2022 were 22.7%, 32.4% and 42.9% respectively. The statistical analysis (chi-square test) shows that the results for November 2022 were not statistically significantly different from those for September 2022. However, when comparing the November 2022 figures (satisfied: 23.2%; dissatisfied: 27.5%) with those from November 2021 (satisfied: 19.3%; dissatisfied: 46.9%), the differences in percentage distribution were statistically significant.

Rating of Chief Executive John Lee. The survey in November 2022 indicated that Chief Executive John Lee’s performance rating (on a point scale ranging from 0 to 100, with 50 as the pass mark) stood at 47.1 on average, slightly higher than that in September 2022 (46.5). The statistical significance test (t-test) showed that the mean difference between the ratings in November 2022 and September 2022 was not statistically significant.

Ratings of three secretaries. The average performance ratings of the Chief Secretary for Administration (Eric Chan), Financial Secretary (Paul Chan) and Secretary for Justice (Paul Lam) in November 2022 were 42.6, 48.5 and 43.0 respectively. The comparison of the ratings of the three secretaries between November 2022 and September 2022 indicated that the differences in all three were not statistically significant. When the current rating of Paul Chan in November 2022 (48.5) was compared with the respective figure in November 2021 (37.0), the difference was statistically significant.

Trust in the HKSAR government. In November 2022, 24.8% of the respondents said they trusted the HKSAR government and 22.8% expressed distrust; 45.9% answered “in-between”. The results in September 2022 were 25.0%, 27.1% and 43.7% respectively. No statistically significant difference was found in trust in the HKSAR government between November 2022 and September 2022. However, when comparing the figures with last year, the percentage differences between November 2022 (trust: 24.8%; distrust: 22.8%) and November 2021 (trust: 23.0%; distrust: 39.8%) were statistically significant.

Trust in the Central government. Regarding the level of trust in the Central government in November 2022, 18.4% said they trusted it, 33.8% answered the opposite and 35.1% said “in-between”. The respective figures in September 2022 were 22.6%, 35.2% and 32.3%. No statistically significant difference was found between November 2022 and September 2022. However, the difference between the percentage distribution in November 2022 (trust: 18.4%; distrust: 33.8%) and November 2021 (trust: 22.1%; distrust: 41.8%) was statistically significant.

In conclusion, the survey results in November 2022 indicate that all the popularity indices (the public satisfaction level with the government’s 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 September 2022 (significance test shows the differences were not statistically significant). However, when compared with the survey conducted in November 2021, all the popularity indices in the current survey, except the level of trust in the Central government, were found to be significantly higher than those in last year (significance test also shows the differences were all statistically significant).

The survey employed a dual-frame sampling design that included both landline and mobile phone numbers. A total of 703 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 337; mobile: 366) were successfully interviewed, with response rates of 22.8% (landline) and 22.7% (mobile). The sampling error for the sample size of 703 is estimated at plus or minus 3.70 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Furthermore, the data in 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.