Freedom of expression during each Party Secretary's tenure
33 Party Secretaries and Chief Executives, ranked by how the freedom of expression changed from their first day in office, next to China over the same months. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.
| # | Party Secretary | Country | In office | Total | vs China | Per year | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | N Tung Chee-hwa | Hong Kong | 1 Jul 1997 – 12 Mar 2005 from 1997 | +0.7 points 1997 → 2004 | — | +0.1 points/yr | |
| 2 | N John Lee | Hong Kong | 1 Jul 2022 – now from 2022 | 0.0 points 2022 → 2025 | — | 0.0 points/yr | |
| 3 | N Leung Chun-ying | Hong Kong | 1 Jul 2012 – 1 Jul 2017 from 2012 | −2.7 points 2012 → 2017 | — | −0.5 points/yr | |
| 4 | N Donald Tsang | Hong Kong | 21 Jun 2005 – 1 Jul 2012 | −4.9 points 2004 → 2012 | — | −0.6 points/yr | |
| 5 | N Chris Patten | Hong Kong | 9 Jul 1992 – 1 Jul 1997 | −5.7 points 1992 → 1997 | — | −1.1 points/yr | |
| 6 | N Carrie Lam | Hong Kong | 1 Jul 2017 – 1 Jul 2022 from 2017 | −54.4 points 2017 → 2022 | — | −10.9 points/yr |
Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last count complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that count had no data, or because the period cut it); China is measured over the same months. Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in points; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. points, 0 to 100, V-Dem's 0 to 1 index times 100 · V-Dem Institute, V-Dem dataset v16 (v2x_freexp_altinf): the freedom of expression and alternative sources of information index, the press, academic and private speech and the media's independence, as V-Dem's country experts rate them, with V-Dem's confidence interval; the 0 to 1 index times 100 · special administrative region data · as of Jul 2025.