Hong Kong has dropped 17 places down a global freedom ranking published by overseas think tanks, marking the second-steepest drop among all territories on the list behind Myanmar.
The city saw significant declines in areas such as the rule of law, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, with the think tanks citing China’s increasing restrictions on liberties in the territory.
Canadian public policy think tank the Fraser Institute and the US-based Cato Institute released the Human Freedom Index 2023 report on Tuesday. Hong Kong’s ranking fell from 29th place in 2020 to 46th in 2021, out of 165 jurisdictions around the world included in the report.
The rankings in the 2023 report are based on information from 2021, the latest year that data is available.
“Suppression in Hong Kong continues to ramp up as the jailing of journalists and pro-freedom advocates grows, with arrest warrants issued for exiled activists to quash even overseas dissent,” said Ian Vásquez, the vice-president of international studies at the Cato Institute, who co-authored this year’s report.
In contrast, Hong Kong was the third freest jurisdiction in the world in 2010, the institutes said in a statement. Fred McMahon, a resident fellow at the Fraser Institute, added that “freedom has suffered a precipitous decline in Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong ranked second in economic freedom in the 2023 report, behind rival Singapore, after sitting on top of the table for over 25 years. But the city’s ranking in various indicators related to personal freedoms declined.
Most notably, the city’s latest score on the rule of law was 6.1, down from 7.5 in 2010. For freedom of association, assembly and civil society, the score plunged to 3.2, down from 8.1 in 2010.
Its freedom of expression and information also suffered a setback, with the latest score standing at 5.3, down from 8.1 in 2010.
Of all the places evaluated in the report, Myanmar saw the steepest year-on-year drop, plunging 20 places to 162. Hong Kong and Haiti saw the second and third biggest drops, diving by 17 and 14 spots respectively.
Beijing’s ‘increasing interference’
Sharp declines in freedom were a global phenomenon due to Covid-19 as the pandemic severely restricted the freedom of movement and trade, the report said. But this year’s report singled out Hong Kong and said that the city’s decline in freedom reflected Beijing’s “increasing interference” and “violation of One Country, Two Systems,” referring to the city’s governing framework which promised a high degree of autonomy and civil liberties.
Mainland China, which the institutes said had “always been less free than the territory,” ranked 149th out of 165 jurisdictions in the latest report.
In a Chinese response to HKFP, a government spokesperson said it strongly opposed the report’s section on Hong Kong, which it said was “inconsistent” with the facts regarding the city’s safeguarding of national security, human rights, and the rule of law.
The spokesperson added that the report neglected that the national security law had restored normalcy to residents’ daily life, economic activities, and the business environment following the pro-democracy protests and unrest in 2019.
Residents in Hong Kong enjoyed freedom and rights as protected by the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, the spokesperson continued, adding that the national security law had specified the protection of human rights.
In September, when the Canadian think tank released its latest global ranking on economic freedom, the government dismissed claims about Beijing’s interference in the city as “totally groundless.”
Switzerland topped the latest freedom ranking, followed by New Zealand, Denmark and Ireland. Syria sat at the bottom of the table.
Taiwan ranked 12th, the highest ranking among East Asian jurisdictions. Canada ranked 13th, while the UK and the US were tied for the 17th spot.
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