For 25 years, Hong Kong, a bustling international hub, has proudly led an important ranking of the world’s most free economies. Now, he doesn’t even present.
The latest edition of the Heritage Foundation’s annual “Economic Freedom Index”, released Thursday, saw Hong Kong excluded from the list it once dominated because its policies are “controlled by Beijing”.
The news comes on the eve of the National People’s Congress of China, which takes place on Friday in Beijing, with greater control of the territory apparently on the agenda.
Last year’s event saw Beijing unveil a broad national security law that it has since imposed, putting the global financial center more firmly on an authoritarian path despite months of fierce protests.
The United States, its allies and international human rights organizations have sharply criticized China over the law, which they say undermined the city’s autonomy and helped Beijing to crush dissent.
Now, the Chinese parliament will propose ways to “improve” Hong Kong’s electoral system to ensure that there are “patriots ruling Hong Kong,” Zhang Yesui’s spokesman said on Thursday – confirming widespread reports of new developments. imminent changes in the political fabric of the city.
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“Events in recent years have shown that many of Hong Kong’s policies are ultimately controlled from Beijing,” Anthony Kim, editor of the Economic Freedom Index, told NBC News.
Kim said that “the loss of political freedom and autonomy” in the city in the past two years “has made Hong Kong almost indistinguishable, in many ways, from other major Chinese shopping centers.” He noted, however, that both Hong Kong and Macau enjoy greater economic freedoms than cities on the continent.
The index report added that, from now on, Hong Kong and Macau would be considered in the context of China’s ranking, which was 107 out of 178 nations – among countries considered “mostly non-free”.
First place in the ranking of the index, which is produced by the Washington think tank, The Heritage Foundation, was won by neighboring Singapore for the second consecutive year.
The United States came in 20th place.
Hong Kong’s finance secretary Paul Chan Mo-po retreated against the ranking on Thursday.
He said Hong Kong’s “central economic competitiveness” remains strong under the “one country, two systems” agreement, which has governed its relations with mainland China since the end of British colonial rule in 1997.
“I do not agree that our economic policy has been taken over by the central government,” he said in an online panel organized by the South China Morning Post.
“The decision to exclude Hong Kong from the report is not justified. It seems to me that when they reached that decision, it must have been overshadowed by their ideological bias and political prejudice.”
But a separate report published this week said Beijing was responsible for the “demolition of Hong Kong’s freedoms and legal autonomy” and is eroding human rights – accusations it often denies.
The annual report by Freedom House, a democracy watchdog group based in the United States, found that global freedom in general was decreasing – with nearly 75% of the world’s population last year living in countries facing democratic decline.
China, India and the United States, which faced an outgoing leader who challenged the election results and an explosion of political violence with a riot on Capitol Hill on January 6, are among the nations facing democratic deterioration, the report said.
“Right now, Hong Kong is in a challenging situation. … Time will tell how the city can regain its vitality,” said Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, former Hong Kong academic and housing minister. “It is very presumptuous for some observers to conclude that Hong Kong is no different from cities on the continent.”
Authorities said the security law was necessary to restore stability after the anti-government and anti-China protests that rocked the territory for months in 2019.
The law, which reshaped Hong Kong’s economic and political landscape, was first announced before the huge and highly choreographed piece of the Chinese political calendar, known as the “two sessions”.
The event was postponed for two months last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year’s congress will start on Friday with about 5,000 delegates from the Chinese Communist Party expected to fill the Great Hall of the People – built under Mao Zedong.
Beijing is likely to use the 13th National People’s Congress to showcase its economic growth efforts after facing the pandemic, but China’s observers will be looking for clues to leader Xi Jinping’s candidacy for a competitive advantage against Washington.
Hong Kong is one of many critical points for US-China tensions, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying on Wednesday that China represented “America’s greatest geopolitical test of the 21st century”.
He added that it is the only country with sufficient power to jeopardize the current international order.
“Our relationship with China will be competitive when it should be, collaborative when possible and adversary when it should be,” he said, in a speech exposing the Biden government’s view of foreign policy.
Reuters contributed to this report.