Hong Kong removed from economic freedom position it once dominated
04 March, 2021
Hong Kong has been taken off an annual index of the world's freest economies for the reason that think-tank that compiles the league desk said metropolis was now directly controlled by Beijing.
The announcement is a reputational blow for Hong Kong and comes as Beijing ramps up its bid to quash dissent after huge and sometimes violent demonstrations in 2019.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative US think-tank, publishes an annual Index of Economic Liberty ranking countries and territories for how business-friendly their regulations and laws are.
During the last 26 years Hong Kong topped the table for all except one year - a source of pride to the city's government, which frequently used the accolade in its official pr announcements and investment brochures.
However when the 2021 ranking is released down the road Thursday (Mar 4), Hong Kong won't appear since the report's authors believe metropolis is no more independent enough of Beijing to justify separate inclusion.
"The increased loss of political freedom and autonomy suffered by Hong Kong over the past 2 yrs has made that town almost indistinguishable in many respects from other significant Chinese commercial centres just like Shanghai and Beijing," Edwin J Feulner, the founder of the Heritage Basis, wrote in the Wall structure Street Journal in Wednesday.
"(Hong Kong's) ties to Beijing happen to be increasingly forged in metal," Feulner added, while its pre-handover "traditions of English prevalent law, flexibility of speech, and democracy contain weakened significantly".
The Heritage Basis is probably the major policy think-tanks that influences fiscal conservatives in America.
Feulner is also a good vocal critic of Beijing and chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Base.
Hong Kong's federal government embraced the think-tank's league table every year it came out.
In 2019 - when Hong Kong topped the desk for the 25th consecutive year - the government said it revealed the city's "financial resilience, high-quality legal framework, low tolerance for corruption, high amount of government transparency, reliable regulatory framework and openness to global commerce".
Last year the city fell from the most notable spot for the 1st time, replaced by rival Singapore, after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law about Hong Kong.
The city's commerce chief at the time brushed off concern and predicted Hong Kong would soon go back to the most notable of the table.
Instead it - and neighbouring Macau - will be counted within China, which presently languishes in 107th place in the position, between Uganda and Uzbekistan, in a section where economies are rated simply because "mostly unfree".
Beijing says the security law was needed to restore steadiness to Hong Kong.
But it in addition has dramatically altered Hong Kong's legislative and judicial relationship with the mainland.
Chinese leaders have declared they would like to ensure sole "staunch patriots" run the town, including within the city's independent judiciary.
That has created some jitters within the international business community, especially just as Beijing falls out with a growing set of western powers.
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