A prouder Hong Kong Chinese

Ben Kwok July 06, 2022 11:31

Are you feeling prouder to be Chinese?

If not, you should be.

Hong Kong people’s sense of pride in becoming national citizens of China has increased significantly to 47 per cent. On the other hand, the percentage of those not feeling proud decreased significantly to 46 per cent, representing the most positive survey results since 2009.

You might think this comes from the survey from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s returning to China, but that is in fact a long-standing popularity survey from Professor Robert Chung Ting-yiu, a highly respected public opinion expert.

Measuring the public sentiment based on people’s ratings on the five core social indicators namely “stability”, “freedom”, “prosperity”, “rule of law” and “democracy”,
Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI), formerly The Public Opinion Programme at The University of Hong Kong (HKUPOP), also found that the net trust value stands at positive five percentage points, although the latest net satisfaction of the HKSAR Government still stands at negative 27 percentage points.

One simple explanation is many people were happy to see the back of former Chief Executive Carrie Lam and her team and look forward to new Chief Executive John Lee who is expected to ease the burning travel and housing issues.

As such, the net satisfaction and net trust figures have improved significantly in June than in May, both registered new record highs since 2019.

It goes without saying that over 100,000 people left Hong Kong in the past year so the chance of getting a disgruntled surveyor was in fact much lower.

Why this positive finding of HKSAR anniversary survey under “One Country Two Systems 25-year Mid-term Review failed to make to the media earlier remains a mystery.

The survey was supposed to be released last Tuesday, two days before President Xi Jinping arrival.

But the SAR government tried its utmost to keep Hong Kong clean by suppressing any chance of disruption during Xi visit.

Robert Chung told the media that he would not release the finding to anyone before its official release, stressing that he has not changed a single word in yesterday’s announcement given the professional dedication he insisted.

Imagine how regretful the SAR government might be now that it knows about the change of public sentiment.

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Ben Kwok

EJ Insight writer