Freedom House, the most authoritative human rights organization in the United States, on Wednesday released its Freedom in the World 2007, a survey of worldwide political rights and civil liberties. Taiwan continued to be listed as a "Free" country. Meanwhile, Taiwan received a score of "1" in the area of civil liberties, which represents the most free. It was given a rating a score of "2" in the area of political rights.
Cheng Wen-tsang, head of the Government Information Office, said that Freedom House has released a report on the degree of freedom in countries throughout the world since 1997. Taiwan has consistently been listed as a "Free" country and is among the top in Asia, on an equal scale with Japan and South Korea. This indicates the affirmation of Taiwan's democracy by Freedom House, Cheng said. He added that this is something that all of the people of Taiwan should be proud of, noting that the people of Taiwan should continue to work to create even greater honor for the nation.
According to the scores announced by Freedom House, China scored "7" in the area of political rights and "6" in the area of civil liberties, both placing China in the "Not Free" country category, and in the same company of Russia, Cuba and Iran. Of the 193 countries judged in the 2006 survey, 45 countries were rated as "Not Free," representing 23 percent of the total polities. The number of people living in "Not Free" countries stood at 37 percent of the world's population, with about half of that living in just one country: China. Cheng said the gap in freedom and democracy between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait again highlights the huge differences in the basic systems of both sides.
The report also pointed out that the percentage of countries designated as "Free" has not increased for nearly a decade, and that this suggests that a trend of "freedom stagnation" is developing. In addition, authoritarian regimes in Russia, Venezuela, China, Iran and Zimbabwe have even resulted in a "pushback" of democracy in those places, which is threatening to erode progress made over the past three decades. On a regional basis, a setback for freedom has been seen in a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific. On a global scale, the level of world freedom in 2006 slipped modestly in comparison to the previous year.
The survey conducted by the Freedom House scored 193 countries on the level of political rights and civil liberties. Countries were divided into categories of "Free," "Partly Free" or "Not Free" based on the scores. In each category a score of 1 to 7 was assigned, with countries receiving a score between 1 and 2.5 deemed "Free," between 3 and 5 deemed "Partly Free" and between 5.5 and 7 deemed "Not Free." Of the 193 countries surveyed, 90 were categorized this year as "Free," 58 as "Partly Free" and the remaining 45 as "Not Free."
