Taiwan has continued its slow slide down the rankings of an international corruption index released by Transparency International Taiwan yesterday.
The group held a press conference to announce the results of the Corruption Perception Index -- an annual study ranking countries on corruption. Taiwan ranked 35th on a list of 146 countries, achieving a score of 5.6 on the 10-point index. A higher score on the index indicates less corruption.
In 2002, Taiwan scored 5.6 and ranked 29th, while last year it scored 5.7 but ranked 30th.
"People will think that Taiwan slipped five places when we compare it with last year's figures, but actually Taiwan only slipped three places because another 13 countries joined the evaluation this year and two of them -- Barbados and Malta -- came ahead of Taiwan," said Chai Sung-lin (柴松林), chief executive of the Society Improvement Foundation.
National Taiwan University political science professor Lin Shui-po (林水波) said the nation's ranking began to drop after the Democratic Progressive Party came to government in 2000.
Transparency International did not, in fact, start ranking Taiwan until 2002.
Lin said the relevance of politics to the prevalence of corruption was an issue worth discussing.
"Taiwan is becoming more and more democratic but our place on the corruption index is not improving. Why is this?" Lin said.
Lin also mentioned the success of Singapore, saying that the Southeast Asian nation scored 9.3 and ranked 5th this year -- the highest among Asian countries and the same rank as the year before.
"It has a similar cultural and social background to ours. They can do so well. Why can't we?" he said.
Hsichih Trio defense counsel Su Yiu-chen (蘇友辰), another panelist at the press conference yesterday, said he was worried that Taiwan's rank may fall again next year because of several serious scandals this year, including the March 19 assassination attempt on the president and the more recent controversy over alleged political donations to Costa Rica.
"The assassination attempt impacted on the public, and the alleged [Costa Rica] scandal may have damaged Taiwan's reputation. Both of these may hit us hard as far as our ranking on next year's list is concerned," Su said.
Like last year, Finland topped the index as the least corrupt nation with a score of 9.7. New Zealand ranked second with a score of 9.6. Denmark and Iceland shared third place with a score of 9.5.
Among Asian countries, after Singapore, Hong Kong was listed 16th worldwide with a score of 8.0. On last year's index, Hong Kong was listed 14th with the same score.
China scored 3.4 and ranked 66th last year. Although it scored the same this year its rank slipped to 71st.
The US scored 7.5, the same as last year, and came in 17th. Britain and Canada scored 8.6 and 8.5 and ranked 11th and 12th respectively.
Last year, Bangladesh scored 1.3 to rank last. This year, it scored 1.5, still in last place, but shared the position with Haiti.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard