HONG KONG, July 8: Nearly seven out of 10 Hong Kong people want their Beijing-appointed Chief Executive to stop down amid a crisis over a planned security law, according to a survey Tuesday.

Seventy per cent of people questioned last week by University of Hong Kong researchers said they had no confidence in Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and 66.7 per cent wanted a change of leadership.

The poll was conducted after 500,000 people marched on July 1 in protest at a national security law the government wants to bring in, which critics say would severely restrict freedoms in the former British colony.

Only 9.2 per cent of more than 1,000 interviewees said they were satisfied with the performance of Tung’s government, a record low since the university started its polls 12 years ago.

Tung, Hong Kong’s leader since 1997, was forced to defer the reading of the national security bill, due to take place Wednesday, after the pro-government Liberal Party withdrew its support for the legislation at the weekend.

The decision to defer the bill came just two days after Tung publicly insisted it must be brought before legislators as planned and that it was the duty of Hong Kong people as Chinese citizens to enact the law.

The attempts to introduce a national security law in Hong Kong have drawn criticism from the US and Britain who argue it will infringe on the freedoms guaranteed under the agreement by which the territory was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.—dpa