Hong Kong pollster stops tracking public attitudes to 1989 Tiananmen crackdown after ‘zero’ downloads of data
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong pollster has suspended three tracking surveys, including one that recorded people’s attitudes to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, a year after it stopped publishing the results of certain polls.
Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) last month announced the “indefinite suspension” of three surveys “due to zero download.” They tracked the popularity of Executive Councillors, and attitudes to the Tiananmen crackdown and the 1997 Handover anniversary.
Last July, those polls were among 10 PORI announced it would stop publicly releasing results for, instead making findings available for the purpose of academic research, for internal reference, or for a fee.
At the time, PORI said it would consider six factors when deciding whether to continue tracking the 10 surveys: expressed interest, research value, cost-effectiveness, members’ opinion, historical value, and legal risk.
Responding to enquiries, PORI Research Manager Stanley Chu told HKFP by email on Wednesday that all six factors had been considered when deciding to discontinue the poll on public opinion of the Tiananmen crackdown.
“Both the lack of expressed interest in the June Fourth Incident survey data, and the historical value of the survey are important factors we have considered, but the cost of keeping the survey running is also very important,” Chu said.
Widely known as the June Fourth Incident, the Tiananmen crackdown occurred on June 4, 1989, ending months of student-led demonstrations in China. It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed when the People’s Liberation Army dispersed demonstrators in Beijing.
“For the three surveys suspended, legal risk is a very minor factor, especially when these surveys will not be published,” Chu continued, adding that PORI was “prepared to resume the surveys if some members of the public will download the data before the end of this year.”
For three decades, Hong Kong hosted annual vigils in Causeway Bay’s Victoria Park to remember the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown. No official commemoration has been held in the city since police banned the gathering in 2020 and 2021 citing Covid-19 restrictions.
The vigils’ organiser, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, also disbanded in September 2021 after its leaders were charged under a security law imposed on the city by Beijing in June 2020.
Days after the legislation was enacted, PORI’s office was raided by police over alleged dishonest use of a computer. The pollster was a co-organiser of a primary election for the pro-democracy camp held in July 2020, which was later considered central to a subversion conspiracy in the city’s largest national security case to date, for which 45 pro-democracy figures have been convicted.
2023 Tiananmen crackdown poll cancelled
Hours before the expected release of its 2023 poll on attitudes towards the Tiananmen crackdown, PORI published a statement saying that it had been advised by “relevant government department(s)” to cancel the sharing of its findings based on a “risk assessment.”
The survey had been released yearly since 1993. It was previously carried out by a public opinion programme under the University of Hong Kong, until the programme separated from the university and became an independent entity, PORI, in 2019.
Weeks later, PORI said it had “tentatively decided to cancel” about a quarter of its regular survey questions. Of those that would still be asked, the results of around one-third would no longer be made available publicly.
The affected questions include those related to the Tiananmen crackdown, cross-strait issues, the Handover, the city’s disciplinary forces and ratings of lawmakers and other officials, according to the pollster.
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