Washington-based Freedom House, an NGO that rates countries' freedom based on surveys detailing their political rights and civil liberties, announced on Tuesday that global freedom suffered notable setbacks last year but saw Asia as a bright spot, with democratic success stories in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India and Indonesia.
Last year, a total of 193 countries were included in the survey.
Results show that 90 countries, or 47 percent of the total reviewed, were judged to be free, 60 countries or 31 percent as partly free and 43 countries or 22 percent as not free.
A free country is defined as one where there is a broad scope for open political competition, a climate or respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life and an independent media.
Countries in Western Europe and North America were mostly in the free nation category. In Asia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have been rated as free countries in recent years.
The 60 partly free countries, according to the report, may suffer from an environment of corruption, weak rule of law, and ethnic and religious strife. Many countries in Africa and some former Soviet republics were placed in this category.
The percentage of countries found "not free" remained the highest in the Middle East and north Africa, while Cuba, Libya, North Korea and Burma were rated the worst because of the absence of basic political rights and civil liberties.
According to the report, China remained the world's most populous "not free" country. The regime continued to crack down on political activists, journalists and human rights lawyers.
Preparations for this year's Olympic Games have contributed to China's antidemocratic environment, with millions of people forcibly moved to make way for Olympic facilities and new restrictions placed on ethnic and religious minorities.
The report also indicates the resurgence of pragmatic, market-oriented, or energy-rich dictatorships. The trend of governments trying to harness the power of the marketplace while maintaining closed political systems is most visible in Russia and China, but also in other parts of the world.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS