Hong Kong Ranks 41 From Bottom in Latest Global Democracy Report

The police escorted two democrats (in plain clothes) Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit (L) and Andrew Wan Siu-kin (R) into a prison van and went to the court to stand trial, in Hong Kong, on July 8, 2021. Sung Pi-Lung/The Epoch Times

The V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden recently released the “Democracy Report 2023,“ with Hong Kong’s Liberal Democracy Index ranking dropping from 123rd last year in the world to 139, the 41st when counted from the bottom, a rating within the 20 to 30 percent of countries and regions considered the most undemocratic. China’s ranking remains unchanged, at 172nd in the world, which is the eighth from the bottom. The bottom five countries are North Korea, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Chad, and Syria.

The theme of this year’s report is “Defiance in the Face of Autocratization.” It is the seventh report published by the research group. It analyzed data from 202 countries and regions around the world (180 ranked), involving 4,000 scholars. Overall, the level of democracy around the world has declined over the past 35 years, on average falling back to the level it was in 1986. By 2022, 72 percent of the world’s population, a total of 5.7 billion people, lived in authoritarian countries. The Asia-Pacific region has regressed to the level of 1978, while Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbeans have even regressed to that at the end of the Cold War.

The number of countries progressing towards democratization fell to 14, accounting for just two percent of the world’s population, the fewest since 1973. On the contrary, the number of authoritarian countries increased from 33 last year to 42, accounting for 43 percent of the world’s population from the previous 36 percent, a record high.

Hong Kong’s Electoral Democracy Rated 18th from the Bottom

In terms of the Liberal Democracy Index, Denmark jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 in the world last year, while Sweden fell from No. 1 to No. 2, and Norway ranked No. 3 for two consecutive years. In Asia, the top three this year are Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, while last year, they were in the order of South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

Hong Kong dropped from 123rd last year to 139th this year and was even named as one of nine countries and regions in Asia that had seen democratization decline substantially.“ The nine (in alphabetical order) are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand. Hong Kong’s freedom and democracy index dropped from around 0.3 points in 2012 to 0.12 points in 2022, and it was rated among the 20 to 30 percent of countries and regions with the lowest degree of democracy and is classified as one of the ”closed autocracy” regions with a score close to Vietnam, Egypt, Turkiye, Rwanda and the like.

In terms of the Electoral Democracy Index, Hong Kong dropped sharply from 134th in the world last year to 162nd this year, which ranks the 18th lowest in the world. The three countries with the highest scores in the world are, in that order, Denmark, Switzerland, and Sweden.

Media Censorship by Hong Kong Government Rapidly Deteriorating

This year’s report specifically mentions government censorship of the media as deteriorating most severely in Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Poland, El Salador, and Mauritius in the past decade. In Hong Kong, the “Government’s Disinformation” level has risen from about 2.5 points in 2012 to 3.5 points in 2022. This is a score comparable with that of Myanmar, Cambodia, and North Korea.

The “Political Polarization” level also rose from about 2.3 points in 2012 to 3.9 points in 2022, a score fairly close to that of Myanmar and Belarus.

In terms of the Academic Freedom Index, Hong Kong dropped sharply from about 0.7 points in 2012 to about 0.25 points in 2022, and its score is close to those of Russia, Thailand, and Yemen. The report specifically mentions that global academic freedom has been damaged, affecting more than half of the world’s population, around four billion people. Only five countries in the world are improving in academic freedom, involving just 0.7 percent of the population. The situation in the Asia-Pacific region is particularly bad. That includes Hong Kong, Afghanistan, China, and India.

China’s Ranking Remains at 8th From the Bottom

In Mainland China, the ranking of the Freedom and Democracy Index remains unchanged, ranking 172nd in the world for two consecutive years, or the 8th from the bottom, and is classified as one of the ten percent of countries with the lowest degree of democracy in the world. Its score is in line with those of Belarus, Turkmenistan, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.

The report specifically mentioned that China, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Iran are the four closed authoritarian countries that account for about 28 percent of the world’s population, with a total of 2.2 billion people. In contrast, 58 “electoral democracy” countries account for just 16 percent of the world’s population, while 33 “liberal democracy” countries account for just another 13 percent of the world’s population.

The study also found that the economic influence of autocratic countries has greatly increased. With the economic development of autocratic countries, China and other such countries accounted for about 46 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, and it was only 24 percent in 1992. In the same period, China’s share of global GDP rose from 4.4 percent in 1992 to 18.5 percent in 2022. Trade among democracies dropped from 74 percent of the world in 1998 to 47 percent in 2022. Democracies are becoming increasingly dependent on imports and exports to and from authoritarian countries.

Multiple Reports Point to Deteriorating Conditions in Hong Kong

In February 2023,  an American think tank, the Cato Institute, and its Canadian counterpart, the Fraser Institute, published the “Human Freedom Index 2022,” and Hong Kong’s ranking dropped from first in the world in 2016 to 34th in 2022 with the rankings of freedom of speech, and freedom of association and assembly dropped to 78th and 140th respectively. The report criticized the CCP’s implementation of the “National Security Law” in 2020, which violated the “one country, two systems” and ended Hong Kong’s autonomy.

On Feb. 8, ECA International, a human resource consulting agency, announced the ranking of the world’s most livable cities. Hong Kong dropped 15 places in 2022 from 2021 to 92nd. The implementation of the “National Security Law” is one of the main reasons leading to its drop in ranking.

On March 6, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in its review report, gave the conclusion of its fourth report on Hong Kong with reference to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, cited that the National Security Law for Hong Kong has actually abolished Hong Kong’s judicial independence. It urged the CCP and the Hong Kong government to review the content of the “National Security Law” to ensure Hong Kong’s full judicial independence and not to use this law at will to interfere with the independence of the judiciary.