China is classified as an “authoritarian regime” in the Democracy Index. It has a total score of 2.21 (on a 0 to 10 scale), down from 2.97 in 2006 when the index began, and sits in 148th position (out of 167), close to the bottom of the global rankings.The country has a score of 0.00 for electoral process and pluralism, one of the five categories across which our model measures the quality of democracy in every country. China eschews electoral democracy: it does not have free elections, universal suffrage or a multiparty system. It has a score of 0.88 for civil liberties: there is no free print, broadcast or social media, no freedom of expression and there are restrictions on the internet.There are no free trade unions, no independent judiciary and no real equality before the law. The state does not practice religious tolerance and routinely uses torture.The EIU’s Democracy Index report provides a snapshot of the state of global democracy, including a detailed analysis of the situation in Asia, which remains the fourth-ranked region in the index, after North America, Western Europe and Latin America.The Asia and Australasia region includes top-scoring New Zealand (9.37), which rises to 2nd in the global ranking (out of 167 countries), with four other “full democracies”: Taiwan (8th), Australia (9th), South Korea (16th) and Japan (17th).However, the region also includes some of the worst performers in the world with Afghanistan and Myanmar joining the persistent laggard North Korea to take the bottom three places in the rankings in 2021.
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