China: A hard-line autocracy that loses credibility at an international level

The country report of China in the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) 2020 shows little change for the continent-sized Asian country since the last report of 2018. Structural challenges continued to intensify and the CCP’s single-party leadership does not consider democratic transformation as an objective to be pursued. On the contrary, the administration of President Xi Jinping continued to oppress opponents and dissidents while intensifying ideological indoctrination and surveillance. The deprivation of civil liberties, the concentration of power and the lack of political participation are the main reasons for classifying China in the BTI as a hard-line autocracy. At the same time, the BTI warns that China is becoming increasingly isolated from the world’s liberal democracies and loses their confidence. Human rights violations in so-called “re-education camps”, where it is estimated that more than one million Uyghurs are held, caused widespread criticism among Western democracies and lead to even more concern over China’s candidacy for the UN Human Rights Council elections in October this year.

By Dorothea Krueger

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