Taiwan has placed 35th on Transparency International’s 2014 clean government rankings.
This year’s rankings compared levels of corruption in 175 countries and territories, assigning each of them a score on the “Corruption Perceptions Index” (CPI). The CPI measures levels of corruption in the public sector on a scale from 1 to 100, with 100 indicating a total lack of corruption.
Taiwan’s CPI score of 61 means that the country is the 35th least corrupt in the world. Taiwan has moved forward one place in the rankings since last year’s scores were released. This year, Taiwan placed ahead of most other East and Southeast Asian countries. Only Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong were further ahead in the rankings.
Transparency International’s director for East and South Asia, Liao Ran, said the media’s willingness to expose scandals, and the police force’s willingness to handle cases are the main reasons Taiwan advanced one place forward in the rankings this year.