In a recent Global Bribery Risk Index ranking, China is ranked 126th out of 194 countries and territories, a medium risk. Although Hong Kong is a very low risk region, its ranking dropped ten spots from the previous year, and it was overtaken by Taiwan.
The report was compiled by TRACE, a U.S.-based business group dedicated to anti-bribery and compliance. The report assesses the likelihood that businesses around the world will be exposed to the risk of bribery in four areas: the nature and extent of their interactions with governments, societal attitudes toward bribery and the ability of governments to enforce bribery laws, government transparency, and the ability of civil society to monitor and expose corruption, including aspects such as press freedom.
The 2020 report assesses 194 countries and territories and provides a composite score based on a percentage system, with lower scores indicating lower risk of bribery.
With an overall score of 54, China ranks 126th, up from 59th and 134th the previous year. The report uses a score of 56 as a watershed between medium and high risk, with China’s bribery risk ranked as medium.
TRACE President Alexandra Wrage told VOA that the Chinese government has streamlined some of the administrative procedures for doing business in China in recent years, thereby reducing the opportunities for public officials to solicit bribes, but on the other hand, the political environment in China does not allow for independent evaluations of government policies and activities, which often serve as a watchdog against government abuses.
She said, “Long-term improvements in China’s bribery risk environment will depend on the CCP’s continued commitment to reducing corrupt practices.”
The Asia Pacific region with the lowest bribery risk in the 2020 report is Singapore (17 points), ranked 15th, followed by Taiwan (19 points), Hong Kong (19 points), Japan (19 points), and South Korea (20 points). A score of 22 or less is considered a very low risk of bribery.
However, while Hong Kong remains a very low risk region, its score worsened by three points from the previous year’s 16, and its ranking dropped significantly from 10th to 20th.
In response, Leitch said Hong Kong’s declining law enforcement transparency and press freedom were the main reasons. We’ve seen a change in attitudes toward corruption in Hong Kong, with a gradual deterioration over the past few years,” she told VOA. During the same period, the predictability and transparency of laws and law enforcement have also declined significantly. Combined with the instability of press freedom and civil society oversight in Hong Kong, these factors have weighed on Hong Kong’s anti-corruption efforts, although Hong Kong remains among the lowest bribery risks in the world.”
In contrast to Hong Kong, Taiwan ranked in the top 20 for the first time in 2020, placing one spot ahead of Hong Kong with a score of 19, a significant improvement over the previous year’s score of 26.
Taiwan’s progress is the cumulative result of a number of small changes, including recent reductions in export compliance burdens, more efficient port services, and long-term efforts by top government officials to reduce bribery, Reich said.
In the 2020 Global Business Bribery Risk Report, the five lowest risk countries are Denmark (1), Norway (5), Finland (7), Sweden (8), and New Zealand (8), while the five highest risk countries are North Korea (93), Turkmenistan (86), South Sudan (85), Venezuela (82), and Eritrea (81).
With a score of 20 in 2020, the United States dropped eight places from the previous year, from 15th to 23rd place. The average in South America has improved significantly since 2019, but the Latin America region remains largely unchanged. Somalia was at the bottom of the rankings from 2017 to 2019, but this year it shrugged off its position at the bottom, ranking 189th out of 194 countries and territories.
TRACE began publishing the Bribery Risk Index in 2014 to provide multinational companies with reliable and specific information about the bribery risks they face when doing business around the world, and to help them assess those risks and develop compliance and due diligence programs to address them.
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