Taiwan has remained the only country in Asia with “open” civic space for the fifth consecutive year, according to the CIVICUS Monitor ranking released on Wednesday.
The People Power Under Attack 2023 report named Taiwan as one of only 37 “open” countries or territories out of 198 globally, and the only in Asia.
Compiled by CIVICUS — a global alliance of civil organizations dedicated to strengthening civil action — the ranking compiled annually since 2017 measures the state of freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression around the world.
Photo courtesy of CIVICUS
Researchers assign each country or territory one of five rankings describing the state of its civic space as open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed or closed.
This year, 37 were considered open, 43 were narrowed, 40 were obstructed, 50 were repressed and 28 were closed.
By population, only 2.1 percent of people live in open societies — half of the percentage seen six years ago — while 40.3 percent are in repressed societies and 30.6 percent are in closed societies.
Eight of the 26 countries or territories in Asia were rated as closed, up from seven last year, as Bangladesh joined China, Hong Kong, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Afghanistan in the bottom ranking.
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