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The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s (CUHK) Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies conducted a telephone survey from 18 July to 27 July 2022 to study the popularity of the HKSAR Government. The major findings are:

Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government. In the July 2022 survey, 21.5% of the 702 respondents expressed satisfaction with the HKSAR Government, 37.9% said they were dissatisfied and 36.8% answered “in-between”. The corresponding figures for May 2022 were 17.9%, 43.8% and 37.3% respectively. The statistical analysis (chi-square test) shows that the results for July 2022 were statistically significantly different from those for May 2022. When comparing the July 2022 figures with those from July 2021, the difference in percentage distribution was also statistically significant.

Rating of Chief Executive John Lee. The survey in July 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 42.9 on average, higher than that in May 2022, when he was the Chief Executive-designate (39.5). The statistical significance test (t-test) showed that the mean difference between the ratings in July 2022 and May 2022 was statistically significant.

Ratings of Three Secretaries. The ratings of new Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan and new Secretary for Justice Paul Lam were 37.2 and 39.0 respectively. However, nearly half of the respondents (Eric Chan: 48.5%; Paul Lam: 47.2%) could not or refused to give ratings, which may indicate that the public’s awareness of the two new secretaries is low. Financial Secretary Paul Chan’s rating in July 2022 was 44.4, very close to that in May 2022 (44.3); no statistically significant difference was found between the two. When his rating in July 2022 was compared with the respective figure in July 2021, the current rating was statistical significantly higher.

Trust in the HKSAR Government. In July 2022, 24.6% of the respondents said they trusted the HKSAR Government and 28.1% expressed distrust; 40.8% answered “in-between”. The results in May 2022 were 21.0%, 33.2% and 42.1% respectively. A statistically significant difference was found in trust in the HKSAR Government between July 2022 and May 2022. When comparing the figures with last year, the difference between July 2022 (Trust: 24.6%; Distrust: 28.1%) and July 2021 (Trust: 19.4%; Distrust: 43.0%) was statistically significant.

Trust in the Central Government. Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in July 2022, 22.3% said they trusted it, 32.9% answered the opposite and 30.2% said “in-between”. The respective figures in May 2022 were 24.7%, 35.4% and 29.9%. No statistically significant difference was found between July 2022 and May 2022. However, the difference between the percentages in July 2022 (Trust: 22.3%; Distrust: 32.9%) and July 2021 (Trust: 23.9%; Distrust: 47.7%) was statistically significant.

In conclusion, the survey results in July 2022 indicate that the public satisfaction level with the government’s performance, the performance ratings of the Chief Executive and trust in the HKSAR Government were higher than in May 2022 (tests show the differences are statistically significant). When compared with the survey conducted in July 2021, all the popularity indices in the current survey were significantly higher this year (tests also show the differences are all statistically significant).

The survey employed a dual-frame sampling design that included both landline and mobile phone numbers. A total of 702 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 338; mobile: 364) were successfully interviewed, with response rates of 25.5% (landline) and 25.9% (mobile). The sampling error for the sample size of 702 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.