Public approval | HK people show record low confidence in ‘One Country, Two Systems’

The latest survey conducted by the Public Opinion Programme of the University of Hong Kong (HKU POP) showed that Hong Kong peoples’ net confidence in the future of the Special Administrative Region has plunged to a record low since the question was first asked in 1994.

Last week, HKU POP released its trust and confidence indicators. A total of 1,024 Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong residents aged 18 or above were questioned regarding their confidence in the future of the Hong Kong SAR, the Beijing central and Taiwan governments, as well as in the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy. Confidence in the policy dropped by 10 percentage points in the latest survey.

Further analysis shows that the younger the respondent, the less they trust the central government, and the less confident they are in Hong Kong’s future and its separate system of governance.

With respect to the confidence indicators, peoples’ confidence in the future of China remains the highest among the three options.

The latest survey shows that Hong Kong peoples’ net trust in the Hong Kong government and central government have both dropped since half a year ago. Both figures are at a record low since Carrie Lam became Chief Executive.

The latest survey revealed that 34 percent of respondents trusted the Hong Kong government and 33 percent trusted the Beijing central government.

On the other hand, 39 percent of the respondents had confidence in Hong Kong’s future, and 62 percent had confidence in China’s future, while 41 percent of the respondents were confident in ‘One Country, Two Systems.’ JZ