Hong Kong Now Ranked as One of the Worst Civic Spaces Alongside North Korea and Other Authoritarian Regions

Hong Kong police arrests Wong, a white-haired activist, on July 1, 2021. Song Bilong/The Epoch Times

On March 16, The International Civil Society Organization CIVICUS released “People Power Under Attack 2022,” a report evaluating citizens’ freedom movement worldwide.

In the latest report, Hong Kong has dropped from the second worst “Repressed” category to the worst, “Closed” category.

According to the report, Hong Kong is now one of the world’s 27 worst countries and regions, as authoritarian as North Korea and Afghanistan.

Who is CIVICUS

CIVICUS is a global alliance of civil society organizations whose members include trade unions, professional associations, and charity foundations. Since 2017, CIVICUS has formed CIVICUS Monitor with over 20 research organizations to evaluate freedom of civic activities in 197 countries and regions worldwide, including peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and association.

The research team divided the civic activity space into five categories: “Open,” “Narrowed,” “Obstructed,” “Repressed,” and “Closed,” with “Closed” being the lowest level.

The new 2022 report shows civic spaces of 38 countries around the world have been ranked as “open,” 42 rated as “Narrow, “and 40 as “Restricted.” Fifty countries and regions are rated as “Repressed,” and 27 are ranked as “Closed.”

As for global population distribution, only 3.2 percent of the world population lives in “open” countries, 11.3 percent in “narrow” countries, and 14.9 percent in “restricted” countries.

Almost half the world’s population currently lives in “depressed” countries, 42.2 percent, while 28.5 percent are in “closed” regions.

Hong Kong Is Among the Bottom 28.5 Percent.

The report describes that 2022 marks a severe decline in citizens’ freedom worldwide. More people live in “closed” countries than ever before, and about two billion people worldwide are “extremely repressed.”

According to CIVICUS 2018 report, 45 countries around the world were classified as “open,” 40 as “Narrow,” 53 as “Restricted,” 35 as “Repressed,” and 23 ranked as “Closed.”

Hong Kong Is at its Worst and No Longer Free

The 2022 report highlighted and commented on 15 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Myanmar, and Afghanistan.

For the first time, CIVICUS downgraded Hong Kong’s rating in its 2022 report from the second worst, “Repressed,” to the bottom, “Closed.” Democracy and human rights deteriorating

Researchers at CIVICUS cited that since October 2019, Hong Kong has been on the observation list of “Regions with Rapid Deterioration of Civil Liberties,” Hong Kong has not been able to resolve its civil rights violations.

National Security to Blame

The report criticizes the Hong Kong government for suppressing dissidents and organizations after implementing the Hong Kong National Security Law. The government uses the law criminalizing peaceful protests and shut down civil society and media agencies, resulting in Hong Kong’s drop in ranking.

The report describes Hong Kong as full of fear because citizens are imprisoned for exercising their civil rights, freedom to protest and assembly, and freedom of speech.

The report documented its concerns about four various activities the National Security Law targets: secession, subversion of state power, terrorism, and conspiring with foreign forces. CIVICUS believes that the definition of the related crimes is vague and can be easily used to heavily sentence any human rights defenders and dissidents who criticize government officials.

More than 200 democratic figures, opposition election candidates, journalists, lawyers, and former legislators, have been arrested under the National Security Law in Hong Kong.

The report also denounces the Hong Kong National Security Law for damaging the rights to peaceful protest and freedom of assembly, creating a chilling effect.

The National Security Law has forced civil society organizations and trade unions to cease operations or relocate to other countries.

About 3,000 people were accused of organizing, inciting, or participating in unauthorized assembly or peaceful protests. Of the 3,000, 517 were minors.

Josef Benedict, a researcher at CIVICUS Asia-Pacific Citizen Space, stated the Hong Kong government’s continuous crackdown on civil liberties had degraded the once-free city. Additionally, the government uses the National Security Law to prosecute social movement activists, journalists, and other critics of the government, which has created an atmosphere of fear in Hong Kong.

Human Rights Group Welcomes Ranking

Benedict Rogers, a co-founder of Hong Kong Watch, a non-profit civil society organization that advocates for human rights in Hong Kong, welcomed the CIVICUS report.

Rogers entirely agrees with CIVICUS' assessment of the deterioration of Hong Kong’s civil rights; He believes that the decision to downgrade Hong Kong is absolutely accurate, as it honestly reflects the destruction of Hong Kong’s freedom and how its authorities shrink the civil society space sharply.

Global Democracy Report: Hong Kong at the Bottom

In addition, the report of the Varieties of Democracy Institute of the Department of Political Science of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, released in early March 2023, also shows a similar trend.

The report analyzes data from 202 countries and regions around the world.

Overall, the degree of democracy globally has regressed gradually for the past 35 years, to an average same as in 1986.

As of 2022, 72 percent of the world’s population, a total of 5.7 billion people, live in authoritarian countries.

The number of countries that are becoming authoritarian has increased from 33 in 2022 to 42 in 2023.

The population under authoritarian regimes has increased from 36 percent to 43 percent worldwide, which is a record high.

According to the Swedish report, democracy and freedom in Hong Kong have dropped from 123rd in 2022 to 139th in 2023.

With scores close to Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and Rwanda, Hong Kong is now included as one of the nine countries and regions with “Closed Autocracies.” The report concludes that Hong Kong, like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand, has stopped democratization.

Once a free, global financial hub, Hong Kong sends itself to the bottom of the list with the lowest degrees of democracy.