A man waves a Taiwanese flag outside the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters in Taipei on May 17. (Photo: Sam Yeh/AFP)
Taiwan was ranked the top nation in Asia on personal, economic and human freedom while Chinese-ruled Hong Kong dropped to 46th in a global ranking, says a report.
Taiwan clinched 12th position in the Human Freedom Index 2023 by Canadian public policy think-tank, Fraser Institute and the US-based Cato Institute, Taipei Times reported on Dec. 21.
The democratic nation which China claims as its integral part scored 8.56 out of 10 in human freedom while Hong Kong which saw freedom and rights plummet significantly since China’s imposition of repressive national security law scored 7.70.
Hong Kong dropped to 46th from 29th position in 2020-2021 among a total of 165 nations and territories covered by the ranking.
The criterion for economic freedom includes the size of government, legal system, and property rights, sound money — focused mainly on inflation — freedom to trade internationally, and regulation, the report stated.
Personal freedom criteria cover the rule of law, security and safety, movement, religion, expression and information, relationships, association, assembly, and civil society.
The ranking is based on a broad measure of human freedom around the world and defines freedom as the absence of coercive constraints.
Asian nations China (149), Iran (161), Myanmar (162), Yemen (164), and Syria (165) were among the worst performers in the ranking.
Switzerland was ranked the world’s freest nation followed by New Zealand, Denmark, and Ireland.
Ian Vásquez, the vice president of International Studies at the Cato Institute, said that suppression of dissent in Hong Kong was ramping up, the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) reported.
“Suppression in Hong Kong continues to ramp up as the jailing of journalists and pro-freedom advocates grows, with arrest warrants issued for exiled activists to quash even overseas dissent,” Vásquez said.
Fred McMahon, a resident fellow at the Fraser Institute said that “freedom has suffered a precipitous decline in Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong was ranked at the 12th spot for Human Freedom in 2000 with a score of 8.93.
The index noted that the “steep declines in freedom were a global phenomenon due to Covid-19 as the pandemic severely restricted the freedom of movement and trade.”
However, the report singled out Hong Kong and alleged that the city’s decline in freedom reflected Beijing’s “increasing interference” and “violation of One Country, Two Systems,” referring to the city’s governing framework which promised a high degree of autonomy and civil liberties.
The index report pointed out that Mainland China had “always been less free than the [Hong Kong] territory.”
Hong Kong’s poor ranking on human freedom triggered protests from China’s communist regime.
A spokesperson told HKFP that the government strongly opposes the index’s section on Hong Kong, which it said was “inconsistent” with the facts regarding the city’s safeguarding of national security, human rights, and the rule of law.
“The report neglected that the national security law had restored normalcy to residents’ daily life, economic activities, and the business environment following the pro-democracy protests and unrest in 2019,” the unnamed spokesperson said.
“Residents in Hong Kong enjoyed freedom and rights as protected by the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance,” the spokesperson added.
“The national security law had specified the protection of human rights,” the spokesperson further added.
Beijing had termed the Fraser Institute’s global ranking on economic freedom as “totally groundless,” which accused China of interference in Hong Kong.
