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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)’s Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies conducted a telephone survey from 30 January to 9 February 2023 to study the popularity of the HKSAR government. The major findings are:

Satisfaction with the HKSAR government. In the January 2023 survey, 25.6% of the 705 respondents expressed satisfaction with the HKSAR government, 28.6% said they were dissatisfied and 43.7% answered “in-between”. The corresponding figures for September 2022 were 23.2%, 27.5% and 46.5% respectively. The statistical analysis (chi-square test) shows that the results for January 2023 were not statistically significantly different from those for November 2022. However, when comparing the January 2023 figures (satisfied: 25.6%; dissatisfied: 28.6%) with those from January 2022 (satisfied: 17.3%; dissatisfied: 48.5%), the differences in percentage distribution were statistically significant.

Rating of Chief Executive John Lee. The survey in January 2023 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 49.3 on average, slightly higher than that in November 2022 (47.1). The statistical significance test (t-test) showed that the mean difference between the ratings in January 2023 and November 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 January 2023 were 44.1, 50.1 and 43.4 respectively. The comparison of the ratings of the three secretaries between January 2023 and November 2022 indicated that the differences for all three were not statistically significant. The rating of Paul Chan in January 2023 (50.1) was statistically significantly different from the respective figure in January 2022 (38.7).

Trust in the HKSAR government. In January 2023, 26.7% of the respondents said they trusted the HKSAR government and 23.6% expressed distrust; 46.3% answered “in-between”. The results in November 2022 were 24.8%, 22.8% and 45.9% respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in trust in the HKSAR government between January 2023 and November 2022. However, the percentage differences between January 2023 (trust: 26.7%; distrust: 23.6%) and January 2022 (trust: 22.0%; distrust: 37.4%) were statistically significant.

Trust in the Central Government. Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in January 2023, 21.4% said they trusted it, 31.6% answered the opposite and 36.6% said “in-between”. The respective figures in November 2022 were 18.4%, 33.8% and 35.1%. No statistically significant difference was found between January 2023 and November 2022. However, the difference between the percentage distribution in January 2023 (trust: 21.4%; distrust: 31.6%) and January 2022 (trust: 21.3%; distrust: 39.7%) was statistically significant.

In conclusion, the survey results in January 2023 indicate that all the popularity indices (the public satisfaction level with the HKSAR government’s performance, the performance rating of the Chief Executive and the three secretaries, and trust in the HKSAR government and the Central Government) were not significantly different from those in November 2022 (significance test shows the differences were not statistically significant). However, the public satisfaction level with the HKSAR government’s performance, the performance rating of the Financial Secretary and trust in the HKSAR government and the Central Government in the current survey were significantly higher than those in January 2022 (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 705 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 321; mobile: 384) were successfully interviewed, with response rates of 25.4% (landline) and 28.4% (mobile). The sampling error for the sample size of 705 is estimated at plus or minus 3.69 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.