Prologue Journal

Explainer: What is the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute and why was it raided by national security police?

• prologu5
• 01/18/202501/18/2025

Hong Kong Free Press

The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) made headlines after its office was raided on Monday and its CEO and president, Robert Chung, and two other staff members were taken to a police station to assist in a national security investigation.

The developments came weeks after police issued arrest warrants and a HK$1 million bounty last month for six people living overseas, including Chung Kim-wah, a social scientist who was PORI’s deputy chief executive officer. Chung Kim-wah was accused of inciting secession and colluding with a foreign country, both offences under the national security law.

Chung Kim-wah, a former assistant professor in social sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, announced in April 2022 that he had left the city for the UK. He called Hong Kong a place where one may “no longer live normally and without intimidation,” and finished his contract with PORI later that month.

After police issued the arrest warrants, Robert Chung said PORI would be unaffected. Secretary for Security Chris Tang said on Monday, after the pollster’s office was raided, that the case against Chung Kim-wah had nothing to do with the institution’s polling work.

With dozens of civil society groups disbanded and large-scale protests disappearing since Beijing imposed a national security law, PORI’s polls are among the few remaining indicators of the public’s views on societal issues.

For example, a survey in October showed that those who did not want children cited the city’s education system, political environment and living space as the main reasons for remaining childless.

Another study in November found that more Hong Kong residents than ever perceived news outlets to be self-censoring and shying away from criticising local and Beijing authorities.

What is PORI?

PORI is a polling organisation that conducts regular opinion polls on topics such as the public’s satisfaction with the city’s leader, support for government policies, and views on the economic outlook. It aims to document public sentiment with “professional, neutral, and scientific public opinion research,” according to its website, while promoting the freedom of information.

The results of its polls are available on the website, although some data sets must be purchased.

What is the history of PORI?

PORI was launched in July 2019 as the successor of the University of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Programme (POP). Founded in 1991, POP was established to “collect and study public opinion on topics which could be of interest to academics, journalists, policy-makers, and the general public.”

When the University of Hong Kong announced the opinion programme’s split from the institution in April 2019, it said the decision was partly driven by the university’s retirement age policy – the programme’s director Robert Chung was 61 when the move was announced. At the time, Chung said he was not worried that political or economic pressure would compromise the pollster’s research.

Does PORI have a political stance?

POP and PORI have never declared a political stance.

According to POP’s website, its research partners have included private companies, media outlets, as well as the government and public bodies, from the police force to the Consumer Council.

Many of the lawmakers and political parties it collaborated with were from the pro-democracy camp. According to the POP website, it worked with then-lawmakers Cyd Ho, Emily Lau, Fernando Cheung and Kwok Ka-ki. Opposition political parties, such as the now-disbanded Scholarism and Civic Party, were also listed as research partners.

PORI conducted polls on the popularity of political groups, both from pro-establishment and pro-democracy camps.

What have state-backed media said about POP and PORI over the years?

State-backed media have long portrayed POP and PORI as an “anti-China” organisation that fabricates survey results to rally the opposition. One of the earliest criticisms of POP was that Robert Chung in 2004 received funding from the National Democratic Institute, an American NGO, to conduct a survey relating to the Legislative Council elections that year.

In 2015, an op-ed in Wen Wei Po suggested that POP’s survey outcome indicating that the majority of people supported the 2014 Occupy Central movement and wanted universal suffrage was false, and sought to doubt on how the research was carried out.

In 2021, a PORI survey found that most Hongkongers did not intend to vote in the Legislative Council elections – the first since an overhaul effectively barred the opposition from running by introducing “patriotic” requirements. In response, an op-ed published by state-run newspaper People’s Daily accused PORI of using a “façade of academia” to incite the public not to vote.

“Hong Kong people have long been outraged by PORI’s recent activities and called on the SAR government to investigate [PORI] in accordance with the law,” the Chinese-language op-ed said.

Beijing-backed media have also been critical of the long-running PORI polls asking respondents about their sense of identity. In a Dot Dot News op-ed last year, the writer said PORI had used the question of asking people if they identified as Hongkonger and Chinese to promote Hong Kong independence.

“Naturally… people respond that they are a Hongkonger… PORI’s conclusion is that most people do not think they are Chinese, thereby openly supporting Hong Kong independence and localism,” the op-ed read.

How have state-backed media responded to the latest developments?

The issuing of an arrest warrant for Chung Kim-wah, as well as the subsequent raid and investigations of former colleagues, has revived state-backed media’s ire against the independent pollster.

This week, media outlets including Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po ran op-eds describing the “evil anti-China ways” of Chung Kim-wah, Robert Chung, and the polling institute.

One op-ed published by Ta Kung Pao cited an unnamed scholar who said PORI manipulated its survey samples and “ignores statistical common sense.” PORI had been “politicising issues, deceiving and alarming the public, and causing chaos in Hong Kong,” it said.

The op-ed added that the “real motive” of the institute’s departure from the University of Hong Kong in 2019 was to take advantage of the “turmoil,” rally the rioters and profit from crowdfunding.

Why did PORI curb some of its polls, including related to the Tiananmen crackdown?

In June 2023, PORI said it would cancel the release of survey results on Hongkongers’ views of the Tiananmen crackdown, one of its long-running questionnaires. The pollster said in a statement that has since been deleted that the decision was based on “suggestions” made by “relevant government department(s).”

The same month, PORI said it would reduce its self-funded data collection activities, including by cancelling about a quarter of its regular survey questions. The topics include those relating to the Tiananmen crackdown, ethnic identity, the police and others. That statement has also since been deleted. In July 2023, PORI said it would stop publicly releasing results of surveys on some topics and make them private instead for the purpose of academic research, for internal reference, or for a fee.

“We have to conserve our resources and energy now and spend less efforts on those questions which are not reported, not used by anyone, and in a way some of those questions might have generated some unwarranted political disputes we did not intend to do so,” Robert Chung said at the time.

Last July, PORI announced it has suspended three surveys – which tracked attitudes to the Tiananmen crackdown and the 1997 Handover anniversary, and the popularity of Executive Councillors – saying there had been no downloads of their data. PORI said it would consider restarting the relevant surveys if it received download requests. 

Has POP or PORI been subject to law enforcement actions before?

PORI’s office was raided in July 2020, a day before an unofficial Legislative Council primary took place. The primary election was at the centre of the city’s largest national security case, which saw 45 pro-democracy figures convicted and jailed for up to 10 years in November.

Police said they had a warrant and accused PORI – which was helping to organise the primaries – of dishonest use of a computer. No arrests were made. After the raid, Chung Kim-wah said some computers in the office had been hacked.

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