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A telephone survey was conducted from 16 to 22, 2020 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 704 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 37.5%.  The sampling error is estimated at plus or minus 3.96 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Major findings are summarised as follows:

Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government.  According to the survey, 11.4% of the 704 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 67.0% said they were dissatisfied, and 21.2% answered ‘in-between’.  The corresponding figures for December 2019 were 10.6%, 69.6%, and 19.4%, respectively.  The statistical analysis shows that the results for January 2020 were not significantly different from those of December 2019.  Nevertheless, when comparing the figures with that from the same month last year (i.e. January 2019), it was found that the percentage of satisfaction in January 2020 (11.4%) was substantially lower than that of January 2019 (26.6%).  The difference in percentage distribution between January 2020 and January 2019 was statistically significant.

Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.  The survey in January 2020 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 23.4 on average, higher than the rating for December 2019 (22.2).  The statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in January 2020 and the rating in December 2019 was statistically insignificant.  But, when comparing her current rating (23.4) with that of January 2019 (50.9), the mean difference of the two months was statistically significant.

Ratings of Three Secretaries. The ratings of the Chief Secretary for Administration (Mathew Cheung), Financial Secretary (Paul Chan) and Secretary for Justice (Teresa Cheng) in January 2020 were 28.9, 27.1 and 16.3 respectively.  The corresponding figures in December 2019 were 28.7, 26.3 and 15.9.  The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between January 2020 and December 2019 shows that statistically significant differences were not found.  When their ratings in January 2020 were compared with the respective figures in January 2019, statistically significant differences were found for all of the three Secretaries.

Trust in the HKSAR Government.  As of January 2020, 15.5% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 57.7% expressed distrust; 25.0% answered ‘in-between’.  The results in December 2019 were 14.8%, 59.0%, and 24.7%, respectively.  There was no statistically significant difference being found in trust in the HKSAR Government between January 2020 and December 2019.  However, when comparing the figure in the current survey with those of January 2019, the statistically significant difference between the percentages in January 2020 (Trust: 15.5%; Distrust: 57.7%) and the percentages in January 2019 (Trust: 27.4%; Distrust: 27.3%) was observed.

Trust in the Central Government.  Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in January 2020, 14.6% said they trusted it, 57.9% answered the opposite, and 22.1% said ‘in-between’.  The respective figures from December 2019 were 13.7%, 58.4%, and 23.1%.  No statistically significant difference was found between January 2020 and December 2019.  But the difference between the percentages in January 2020 (Trust: 14.6%; Distrust: 57.9%) and the percentages in January 2019 (Trust: 21.2%; Distrust: 40.8%) was found to be statistically significant.