HK tumbles 12 spots in democracy index

Hong Kong plunged 12 positions in The Economist Intelligence Unit's global democracy index, with the think tank blaming the national security law for hampering political freedom.

The city now ranks 87th globally - lower than Indonesia and the Philippines. It also lost its status as a "flawed democracy" and is now categorized as a "hybrid regime."

Publishing the index yesterday, the think tank said Hong Kong's situation had worsened for the second consecutive year since 2019.

Hong Kong has become a "hybrid regime" that only ranks above authoritarian regimes.

"Suppression of debate on political reform through the extensive application of legal tools continued unabated in 2020. A national security law that curtails Hong Kong's political freedoms and undermines its judicial independence was passed in June," the report said.

"Over the course of the year, pro-democracy activists were arrested and several hundred protesters were imprisoned. Crackdown on opposition also continued - the central government sees no role in Hong Kong for parties that support greater local political autonomy for the territory."

Hong Kong only scored 5.57 out of 10 on overall democracy. Although the city performed well in political culture and civil liberties, it got less than four out of 10 for electoral process and functioning of government.

Hong Kong saw the second-biggest drop in the Asia-Pacific, coming after Myanmar, which was recently rocked by a military coup against its democratically elected government.

Waqas Adenwala, an Asia analyst from The Economist Intelligence Unit, told The Standard there seemed to be little room for improvement.

"Even though the world is obviously calling out to support Hong Kong that would push China to target Hong Kong even more," Adenwala said.

The more other countries campaign for Hong Kong, the more China would [take control]."

China remained at 151, with the think tank saying: "The pandemic led to a tightening of controls over the media and more restraints on civil liberties in China, including via greater online censorship and the expansion of population surveillance methods to control the spread of the coronavirus."

Meanwhile, family members of 12 Hongkongers sentenced to jail by mainland authorities have slammed China for revoking the licenses of their two appointed lawyers, Lu Siwei and Ren Quanqiu.

"The Chinese authorities have used examining professional qualification as an excuse to suppress political dissidents. It's retaliation for the two lawyers' years of assistance in human rights cases and also a deterrent to other lawyers in China," the families said.