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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)’s Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies conducted a telephone survey from 31 July to 12 August 2024 to study the popularity of the Hong Kong government. The major findings include:

Satisfaction with the Hong Kong government. In the survey of August 2024, 26.6% of respondents expressed satisfaction with the Hong Kong government, 29.5% said they were dissatisfied and 41.2% answered “in-between”. The corresponding figures for the previous survey (May 2024) were 19.7%, 36.7% and 40.9% respectively. The statistical analysis (chi-square test) shows there were statistically significant differences between the results for August 2024 and those for May 2024. The differences in percentage distribution between the latest findings (satisfied: 26.6%; dissatisfied: 29.5%) and those from July 2023 (satisfied: 25.7%; dissatisfied: 28.8%) were statistically insignificant.

Rating of Chief Executive John Lee. In the August 2024 survey, Chief Executive John Lee’s performance rating (on a point scale from 0 to 100, with 50 as the pass mark) stood at 51.8 on average, higher than that in May 2024 (49.9), but the mean difference was statistically insignificant. There was also no statistically significant difference between August 2024 (51.8) and July 2023 (50.4).

Ratings of three secretaries. The average performance ratings of the Chief Secretary for Administration (Chan Kwok-ki), Financial Secretary (Paul Chan) and Secretary for Justice (Paul Lam) in August 2024 were 47.8, 49.4 and 47.4 respectively. When comparing the August 2024 figures with those from May 2024 (Chief Secretary for Administration: 45.7; Financial Secretary: 48.6; Secretary for Justice: 45.4), no statistically significant differences were found for all three secretaries. The mean differences between August 2024 and July 2023 (Chief Secretary for Administration: 45.9; Financial Secretary: 52.0; Secretary for Justice: 44.5) were also statistically insignificant.

Trust in the Hong Kong government. In August 2024, 31.6% of the respondents said they trusted the Hong Kong government and 26.2% expressed distrust; 39.9% answered “in-between”. The corresponding figures for May 2024 were 25.8%, 30.6% and 41.4% respectively. No statistically significant differences were found between August 2024 and May 2024. The percentage differences between August 2024 (trust: 31.6%; distrust: 26.2%) and July 2023 (trust: 28.2%; distrust: 23.8%) were also statistically insignificant.

Trust in the Central Government. Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in August 2024, 35.2% said they trusted it, 25.7% answered the opposite and 35.1% said “in-between”. The respective figures in May 2024 were 32.6%, 29.6% and 33.8%. There were no statistically significant differences between August 2024 and May 2024. However, the differences between the percentage distribution in August 2024 (trust: 35.2%; distrust: 25.7%) and July 2023 (trust: 28.6%; distrust: 27.6%) were statistically significant.

In conclusion, the survey results in August 2024 indicate that the public’s performance ratings of the Chief Executive and the three secretaries, the level of trust in the Hong Kong government and the level of trust in the Central Government were not significantly different from those in May 2024 (the significance test shows the differences were not statistically significant); while the public satisfaction level with the Hong Kong government’s performance in August 2024 was significantly different from that in May 2024 (the significance test shows the difference was statistically significant).

The survey employed a dual-frame sampling design that included both landline and mobile phone numbers. A total of 708 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 163; mobile: 545) were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 55.8% (landline: 52.2%; mobile: 56.9%). The sampling error for the sample size of 708 is estimated at plus or minus 3.68 percentage points at 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.