Letters | How Hong Kong lost its top economic freedom ranking after over 50 years
- Readers discuss Hong Kong slipping in an economic freedom league table after a five-decade reign at No 1, and the need for Hongkongers’ to boost cybersecurity in the face of emerging threats
Hong Kong’s five-decade reign as the most economically free jurisdiction in the EFW index was no surprise to those of us compiling the data. We remember watching Milton and Rose Friedman’s Free To Choose series on PBS in the 1980s that celebrated the territory’s economic freedoms, and the data we collected reflected what we saw on the show. Compared with 33-53 per cent income tax rates in the United States, the top rate in Hong Kong was just 17-25 per cent.
After the handover in 1997, little seemed to change in terms of the EFW index. Taxes and regulations remained low and trade with the rest of the world remained free.
But China’s commitment to “one country, two systems” seems to have unravelled. Hong Kong’s EFW index ratings eventually began to reflect the erosion of political and economic freedom.