Political rights and civil liberties account for 40 points and 60 points, respectively. China’s political rights were rated at minus 2 points, while its civil liberties received 11 points, for a total score of 9. China’s score has remained unchanged since 2021.
Hong Kong earned 9 points in political rights and 31 points in civil liberties, for a total score of 40 points. It dropped a point from last year to reach a new low of 40, down from 61 in 2017.
The report summary for Hong Kong noted that since the implementation of the CCP’s national security law (NSL) in 2020, freedom in the territory that “traditionally enjoyed substantial civil liberties and the rule of law under [its] local constitution” has been rapidly deteriorating on many fronts.
“The territory’s most prominent prodemocracy figures have been arrested under its provisions, and NSL charges or the threat of charges have resulted in the closure of political parties, major independent news outlets, peaceful nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and unions,” the summary reads.
Freedom House noted that “Tibet is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government based in Beijing, with local decision-making power concentrated in the hands of Chinese party officials. Residents of both Han Chinese and Tibetan ethnicity are denied fundamental rights, and authorities are especially rigorous in suppressing any signs of dissent among Tibetans.”
The report did not separately assess freedom in the Xinjiang region, the Uyghur region ruled by the CCP.
“If adding the factors of transnational repression and Tibet, mainland China’s freedom score would be even lower,” Lai Jianping, a former Beijing lawyer and president of the Canada-based Federation for a Democratic China, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 27.
Sun Kuo-Hsiang, professor of international affairs and business at Nanhua University in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 27 that Freedom House’s report is credible, as “it truthfully reflects the control model of China’s current political system, legal environment, and social system.”
He said the main reason for the lack of freedom is the political system in mainland China, which is a totalitarian model.
“From the perspective of democratic standards, there are no elections, no multiparty competition, and citizens have no real right to participate in politics,” Sun said.
In the short term, the situation in China will get worse, he said.
“With China’s expanding of its influence, especially in the global south [developing countries], those countries are facing the same situation,” Sun said.
The CCP’s attitude toward overseas dissidents will not change either, he noted.
“It will only intensify overseas surveillance, cyberattacks, espionage, and other transnational repression activities to suppress them,” he said.
In the long run, the CCP’s transnational repression may backfire on China’s global influence. According to Sun, it may “weaken China’s soft power, and cause more countries to take precautionary measures against China.”
He suggested that Western countries strengthen their precautions against the CCP’s export of its totalitarianism and transnational repression by “restricting the CCP setting up institutions in their countries ... paying special attention to the institutions established by the CCP, providing political asylum to Chinese people, and legislating to protect dissidents.”
Lai said everyone who has lived in China can relate to the political life reflected in the freedom index.
“We are all experiencing this regime’s evil actions every day,” he said.
He said Freedom House is an independent and objective evaluation organization with a complete set of scientific assessment methods, “so its conclusions are credible.”
Lai said the Chinese regime’s score in the Freedom House report is consistent with a 2022 survey by scholars and professionals in China’s business circles.
- Late Qing Dynasty (under Empress Dowager Cixi): 6
- Republican Revolution period (1911–1912) that overthrew the Qing and established the Republic of China (ROC): 9
- The ROC under Yuan Shikai (1912–1916): 5
- Beiyang Government of the ROC (1916–1927): 7
- Nationalist Government of the ROC (1927–1949): 4
- People’s Republic of China (Communist China, since 1949): 1 (the lowest)
- ROC in Taiwan (since 1949): 9
Funding Freedom House
After the U.S. government cut foreign aid that funded many U.S.-based NGOs, including Freedom House, the nonprofit organization suspended work and laid off staff.The NGO stated that its project, China Dissent Monitor, a public database monitoring Chinese protests by researchers in Taipei, was forced to suspend all research because of the funding freeze.
Lai said the Freedom House reports are important in exposing authoritarianism and human rights abuses around the world, especially in China.
“If the reports were done by U.S. government agencies, the CCP would easily deny it and say that the U.S. government is trying to overthrow its regime and interfere in China’s internal affairs,” he said. “But these reports are done by this NGO that uses independent, objective, and fair standards to evaluate every country. Then, it’s not easy for the CCP or authoritarian rulers to make arbitrary accusations or to deny.”
It is difficult for these NGOs to obtain financial support from society or the private sector, Lai said. They need staff to do these projects, and their work incurs costs.
“This is a moral thing, it is to spend little money to achieve great things,” he said of the importance of funding NGOs such as Freedom House.
“They make up for the many fields that government agencies or international organizations can’t cover, such as many research fields, public opinion, and evaluations of various fields. These NGOs have a real role to fill in the gaps. They are a necessary source of information for the entire international community.”
