Taiwan has again been ranked one of the freest countries in the world by human rights organization Freedom House in its latest annual report, earning a perfect score for political rights.
The nation was given 1.5 points on a sliding scale in which 1 was free and 7 indicated the worst possible oppression in the Freedom in the World report released on Wednesday.
The report evaluated the state of freedom in 195 countries and 15 territories.
Taiwan earned a perfect 1 score for political rights and a 2 for civil liberties.
“Notably, the people of Taiwan, through student protests and local election results during the year, strongly voiced their preference for a future in which popular sovereignty prevails,” the report said.
The Washington-based organization is to publish a detailed report on Taiwan and its democracy in the next few months.
Of the 195 countries surveyed, 89, or 46 percent, were judged to be free, while 55 countries, 28 percent, were said to be partly free and 51, 26 percent, were rated not free.
Thirty-eight percent of the 45 countries and territories surveyed in the Asia-Pacific region were rated as free.
China was near the bottom of the ratings with a 6.5 freedom score — 6 for civil liberties and 7 for political rights.
The report said that during the past year, hardline policies on political freedoms and civil liberties continued in China and harassment of previously tolerated civil organizations, labor leaders, academics and churches intensified.
In Hong Kong, the student-led “Umbrella movement” “epitomized” Beijing’s refusal to countenance the basic tenets of democracy and the ultimate weakness of its legitimacy among the public, Freedom House said.
“It also stood as a powerful reminder that while China’s model of state-driven growth combined with strict political control is attractive to elites in authoritarian settings, ordinary people and especially the young find China’s rejection of freedom profoundly unappealing,” the report said.
More aggressive tactics by authoritarian regimes and an upsurge in terrorist attacks contributed to a “disturbing decline” in global freedom during the last year, it said.
It was the ninth consecutive year in which the organization found an overall decline in freedom.
“Acceptance of democracy as the world’s dominant form of government — and of an international system built on democratic ideals — is under greater threat than at any other point in the last 25 years,” said Arch Puddington, vice president for research at the think tank.
Puddington said that until recently, most authoritarian regimes claimed to respect international agreements and paid lip service to the norms of competitive elections and human rights.
However, now they argue for the superiority of what amounts to one-party rule and seek to throw off the constraints of fundamental diplomatic principles, he said.
Nearly twice as many countries suffered declines in this year’s report as registered gains — 61 to 33 — and the number of countries with improvements hit a nine-year low.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT