Wed, Feb 11, 2026 page1

• Taiwan jumps to 24th on corruption perceptions index

  DEMOCRACIES SLIPPING: Most countries are failing to keep corruption under control, including advanced nations like the US and the UK, whose scores dropped

  • Staff writer, with CNA and AP
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  Taiwan jumped one spot to rank 24th globally in Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, marking the country’s best-ever result, the Agency Against Corruption said yesterday.

  Taiwan showed steady progress in the evaluation, outperforming 86 percent of the 182 countries and territories assessed, the agency said in a statement.

  Taiwan remains among the top tier of globally perceived clean countries, with an upward trend reflecting continued international recognition of the nation’s governance and anti-corruption efforts, it added.

  

  A government supporter holds a sign with a message that reads in Spanish: “In unity against corruption,” during a rally against corruption in Caracas on March 25, 2023.

  Photo: AP

  The agency said it would continue implementing President William Lai’s (賴清德) governance principles, strengthening anti-corruption systems, risk monitoring and oversight, while working with domestic and international partners to promote clean governance and reinforce Taiwan’s international credibility.

  Taiwan scored 68 points on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

  Denmark topped last year’s rankings with 89 points, followed by Finland with 88, Singapore with 84, and New Zealand and Norway tied at 81.

  At the bottom were South Sudan and Somalia with nine points apiece, followed by Venezuela.

  The group said most countries are failing to keep corruption under control, with 122 out of the 182 nations and territories surveyed scoring less than 50 points

  China was scored 43 this year, the same as last year, and rakned 76 out of 182 countries.

  The global average last year was 42, down one point to the lowest in more than a decade.

  Only five countries scored above 80 in last year’s report, down from 12 a decade ago.

  The report lamented that “too often, we are seeing a failure of good governance and accountable leadership.”

  It also pointed to “a worrying trend of democracies seeing worsening perceived corruption.”

  Among those, it pointed even to high-scoring New Zealand, down two points to 81, and Sweden, unchanged on 80; as well as Canada, the UK, France and the US, which scored 75, 70, 66 and 64 points respectively.

  The US was down one point from 2024 for its worst showing yet under the methodology Transparency started using for its global ranking in 2012, putting it in 29th place in the first year of US President Donald Trump’s second term.

  “While the data has yet to fully reflect developments in 2025, the use of public office to target and restrict independent voices such as NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and journalists, the normalization of conflicted and transactional politics, the politicization of prosecutorial decisionmaking, and actions that undermine judicial independence, among many others, all send a dangerous signal that corrupt practices are acceptable,” the report said.

  The US decision “to temporarily freeze and then degrade enforcement of its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ... sends a dangerous signal that bribery and other corrupt practices are acceptable,” the group said.

  Separately, Transparency said that “US aid cuts to funding for overseas civil society groups that scrutinize their governments has undermined anti-corruption efforts around the world.”

  It contended that “political leaders in various countries have also taken this as a cue to further target and restrict independent voices, such as NGOs and journalists.”

  The organization measures experts’ perception of public-sector corruption around the world according to 13 data sources, including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and private risk and consulting companies.

  Russia remained close to the bottom of the index with an unchanged score of 22, with Transparency International citing “fully centralized, opaque governance that suppresses media, civil society and political opposition.”

  Nearly four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine was up one point at 36 after an energy-sector corruption scandal forced high-level resignations.
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