HONG KONG (AP) — One of Hong Kong’s most respected sources for public opinion information is limiting its survey scope, together with on delicate matters such because the Tiananmen crackdown. The change, on the heels of a danger evaluation executed by the federal government, would seemingly muffle entry to data exhibiting modifications in public sentiment towards town.
Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute introduced Tuesday it tentatively determined to cancel about one-fourth of its common survey questions, and use about one-third of the remaining ones just for inner reference, tutorial analysis, and commissioned providers, relatively than releasing them for public use. The announcement got here two weeks after the discharge of its report concerning the anniversary of China’s crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy protests was canceled because of the Hong Kong authorities’s danger evaluation.
The institute’s CEO, Robert Chung, advised the Associated Press in an electronic mail reply Wednesday that the federal government’s danger analysis weighed into the choice.
When the institute was reviewing its operation, it additionally thought of varied components together with the demand for opinion information, the historic growth of Hong Kong society, the position of the pollster in selling science and democracy, and authorized dangers, he mentioned. Under the ensuing plans, affected matters embody the Tiananmen crackdown on June 4, 1989, town’s handover to China’s rule in 1997, native disciplinary forces, and scores of lawmakers. Their ultimate plan might be introduced in July.
Critics mentioned the strikes could be an important loss to Hong Kong, which was as soon as famed for its freedom of expression.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to China’s rule in 1997 and was promised the proper to retain its Western-style civil liberties for 50 years after the handover. For many years, the institute has tracked public sentiment on points together with the 1989 crackdown that killed tons of and probably 1000’s of individuals and the way China’s central authorities coverage has fared town.
The institute earlier mentioned it was not advised whether or not the evaluation was associated to the sweeping nationwide safety regulation, nor did it ask. Neither the federal government nor the police instantly responded to a request for remark.
In January 2021, when greater than 50 pro-democracy activists have been arrested on subversion prices within the metropolis’s greatest nationwide safety crackdown but, police additionally raided the workplace of the institute, which was concerned in organizing the voting.
Before he launched the unbiased institute, Chung was the director of the general public opinion program on the University of Hong Kong, town’s oldest college. Over the years, his work has drawn ire from pro-Beijing media retailers and organisations. But the institute continued to ask politically delicate questions after the enactment of the safety regulation. For instance, in earlier polls concerning the Tiananmen crackdown, it requested respondents whether or not they thought Beijing college students and the central authorities “did the right thing.”
Chung Kim-wah, who served as deputy chief govt of the institute earlier than leaving for the United Kingdom, mentioned his former colleagues have been doing public opinion research for about 30 years – a rarity within the metropolis, and essential to the examine of Hong Kong’s historical past and social growth.
The ballot outcomes have been additionally used to offer data to the federal government so it might reply to the general public’s views, and served as indicators of town’s modifications, Chung mentioned.
“This is a very great loss,” he mentioned.
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