bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Citizens are more patriotic and hold their leader in higher esteem

People in Macau feel more Chinese than their Hong Kong counterparts and are far more likely to voice confidence in the 'one country, two systems' formula for reunification, an opinion poll shows.

The University of Hong Kong survey also found Macau people were far more supportive of their chief executive and far more satisfied with their government than those in Hong Kong were with Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and his administration.

HKU's Public Opinion Programme interviewed 1,022 Hong Kong residents in mid-December, while the Union for Construction of Macau interviewed 574 Macau residents in late December, for the survey.

Only 56 per cent of the Hong Kong respondents voiced confidence in the 'one country, two systems' formula, compared to 80 per cent of their Macau counterparts. And Macau people, asked the degree to which they felt themselves 'Chinese citizens', gave an average mark of 8.12 on a scale from one to 10.

Hong Kong respondents' average mark was 7.52.

Eighty-six per cent of respondents in both  places  were confident about China's future.

The biggest gaps were found in the levels of support for the two  chief executives and the administrations they head.

While Macau chief executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah attained a 79.1 per cent popularity rating, Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa was popular with only 43.8 per cent of respondents. When it came to their respective administrations, 72 per cent of Macau respondents were satisfied with the performance of their government, while just 17 per cent of Hong Kong respondents were satisfied with theirs.

In addition, the survey found that 78 per cent of the Macau respondents said they trusted their government  while only 32 per cent of those  in Hong Kong trusted Mr Tung's administration.

Robert Chung Ting-yiu, director of the HKU Public Opinion Programme, said the poll findings 'clearly indicate the policy direction of Macau's chief executive and government is much more in line with what people want than is that of their Hong Kong counterparts'.

Dr Chung also noted Macau's chief executive and government were more popular than a year ago, while the reverse was the case in Hong Kong.

Fong Man-tat, of the Union for Construction of Macau, said the findings reflected 'Macau people's traditional patriotic sentiment'.



Macau gets public vote over HK: survey