Hong Kong ranks third in the Global Human Freedom Index report expected to decline significantly in the next few years

Political situation

Written by: Pan Xiqiao and Zheng Baosheng

2020-12-19 20:13

Last update date: 2020-12-19 20:13

The Fraser Institute of Canada announced the 2020 Global Human Freedom Index ranking, of which Hong Kong ranked third.

However, the report specifically mentions that the scoring reference data comes from 2018 and does not reflect the impact of Beijing’s intervention in the past two years, including the implementation of the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law. It is expected that the score will drop significantly in the next few years.

Expect a significant drop in ratings in the next few years

The Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, and the Cato Institute of the United States jointly conducted a research project this year. It ranked 162 countries and regions in the world through 76 personal freedom and economic freedom indicators, covering areas including the rule of law and security. And security, identity and interpersonal relations, freedom of action, speech, assembly, religion, and the ability of people to make personal economic decisions without government or nepotism.

Hong Kong Economic Freedom Score Breakdown:

Hong Kong ranked third this year, the same as last year, while China and Taiwan ranked 129 and 19 respectively.

The report specifically mentioned that the scoring reference data comes from 2018 and does not reflect Beijing's influence on Hong Kong's intervention in the past two years, including the implementation of the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law.

Personal freedom ranks only 32, press freedom and judicial intervention drag down

Hong Kong's personal freedom is 8.53 points, which is only 32nd place. Economic freedom is the world's first, with 8.94 points, while the total score is 8.74 points, down 0.02 points year-on-year.

The report mentioned that Hong Kong’s freedom of the press and the legal system have been interfered as the reason why Hong Kong’s personal freedom score dropped from 9 points in 2008 to 21st place this year to only 8.53 points in 32nd place this year.

Freedom to form a political organization gets 6 points for freedom of the press only 5 points

In terms of individual freedom, Hong Kong scored 10 points for freedom of migration, but only 6.5 points for association and civil society. Among them, the free entry and exit of civil groups was only 5.9 points, and the pressure of civil society was only 5.8 points.

In terms of freedom of speech and information, although there are five items with 10 points, freedom of the press has only 5 points, which is the lowest among all the indicators, bringing down the score of freedom of speech and information to 9.2 points.

Hong Kong Personal Freedom Score:

Compared with 2008, freedom of association dropped from 10 points to 7.5 points, freely formed political organizations dropped from 7.8 points to 6 points, free access to civil groups dropped from 8 points to 5.9 points, and civil society pressure dropped from 8.2 points to 5.8 points. Minute.

In addition, freedom of the press dropped from 6.6 points to 5 points.

The report also believes that as Beijing accelerates pressure on Hong Kong, the score will drop significantly in the next few years.

The top two places in the ranking are New Zealand and Switzerland, followed by Hong Kong, Denmark and Australia, and the United Kingdom and the United States are tied for 17th.

The five countries with the lowest degrees of freedom are Iran, Yemen, Venezuela, Sudan and Syria.

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