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Survey Findings on HKSAR Government’s Popularity in October 2019 Released by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK
A telephone survey was conducted from 22 to 28 October 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 714 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 36.3%. The sampling error is estimated at plus or minus 3.67 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Major findings are summarised as follows:
Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government. According to the survey, 10.4% of the 714 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 66.1% said they were dissatisfied, and 22.7% answered ‘in-between’. The corresponding figures for September 2019 were 11.7%, 63.4%, and 24.0%, respectively. The statistical analysis shows that the results for October 2019 were not significantly different from those of September 2019. Nevertheless, when comparing the figures with that from the same month last year (i.e. October 2018), it was found that the percentage of satisfaction in October 2019 (10.4%) was substantially lower than that of October 2018 (29.5%). The difference in percentage distribution between October 2019 and October 2018 was statistically significant.
Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The survey in October 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 25.5 on average, lower than the rating for September (28.2). The statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in October 2019 and the rating in September 2019 was statistically significant. Also, when comparing her current rating (25.5) with that of October 2018 (52.3), 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 October 2019 were 30.9, 26.9 and 18.0 respectively. The corresponding figures in September 2019 were 32.1, 28.7 and 19.4. The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between October 2019 and September 2019 shows that statistically significant differences were not found. When their ratings in October 2019 were compared with the respective figures in October 2018, statistically significant differences were found for all of the three Secretaries.
Trust in the HKSAR Government. As of October 2019, 16.0% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 55.7% expressed distrust; 26.8% answered ‘in-between’. The results in September 2019 were 17.0%, 53.2%, and 28.3%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in trust in the HKSAR Government between October 2019 and September 2019. However, when comparing the figure in the current survey with those of October 2018, it shows that the percentage of trust in the HKSAR Government in October 2019 (16.0%) was substantially lower than that of October 2018 (29.0%), 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 October 2019, 14.0% said they trusted it, 58.4% answered the opposite, and 23.0% said ‘in-between’. The respective figures from September were 14.5%, 58.0%, and 23.8%. No statistically significant difference was found between October 2019 and September 2019. But the difference between the percentages in October 2019 (Trust: 14.0%; Distrust: 58.4%) and the percentages in October 2018 (Trust: 20.1%; Distrust: 38.7%) was found to be statistically significant.
