APSN | Public support for Occupy movement growing, survey shows

Home > North-East Asia >> Hong Kong

Public support for Occupy movement growing, survey shows

South China Morning Post - October 23, 2014

Exclusive election body at heart of HK protests – Associated Press. October 23, 2014
Hong Kong protesters plan march after fruitless talks with government – Reuters. October 22, 2014
Hong Kong protesters confront government officials in TV debate – Sydney Morning Herald. October 22, 2014
Hong Kong's leader Leung Chun-ying says there's room for 'more democratic' elections as talks begin – ABC Radio Australia. October 21, 2014
Hope for end to Hong Kong protests rests on talks set for Tuesday – Reuters. October 20, 2014

Peter So – Public support for the Occupy movement has grown since the campaign began, and it continues to divide residents, a Chinese University survey has found.

Support for the movement was particularly significant among young people, pan-democrats and moderates. Pollsters said they believed that the police force's controversial handling of protesters – including using tear gas and batons – was a catalyst.

Nearly 38 per cent of respondents said they supported the Occupy movement, which seeks to have chief executive candidates in 2017 run without vetting by Beijing. More than 35 per cent said they did not support the Occupy protests.

The poll, conducted between October 8 and 15, questioned 802 Hongkongers aged 15 and above by phone.

The level of support grew 6.7 percentage points from a poll a month earlier, and opposition shrank by 10.8 percentage points. The university conducted the earlier survey between September 10 and 17, just days before the class boycott started.

Professor Francis Lee Lap-fung, one of the pollsters with Chinese University's school of journalism and communication, said: "Mathematically speaking, neither side has really represented the majority."

Lee said the police force's tactics to control protesters – including allegations that protesters were beaten – might have triggered the surge in public support for the Occupy movement.

The poll found that 42.2 per cent of respondents considered the police's handling of conflicts between Occupy supporters and opponents to be inappropriate, compared with 26.7 per cent who found the methods appropriate.

Nearly 54 per cent said it was inappropriate to use tear gas against protesters on September 28. Twenty-two per cent said it was appropriate.

Among respondents aged 15 to 24, support for the movementrose from 46.7 per cent to 62.1 per cent. Among pan-democrats and moderates, the support increased from 52.3 per cent to 66.3 per cent, and from 18.5 per cent to 26.6 per cent respectively.

Asked if they trusted the police force, 44 per cent said they still did, while 28.6 per cent respondents said they did not. The survey had a sampling error of 3.5 percentage points.

[This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as "Public support for campaign grows, survey finds".]

Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1622223/occupy-movement-continuing-gain-momentum-survey-shows.