ABSTRACT
On July 1, 2003, we conducted the first of our protest onsite surveys, in which we asked the respondents if they would agree with a number of statements about their reasons for participating in the protest. We found 79.9 percent of the respondents “strongly agreed” that “I participate to protest against Article 23 [i.e., national security legislation],”1 81.2 percent “strongly agreed” that “I participate in the protest because the overall performance of the government is unbearable,” and 82.3 percent “strongly agreed” that “I participate in the protest because the overall performance of the government is disappointing.” Only 47.5 percent strongly agreed that “I participate because the performance of the government during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis is disappointing.”
