Rimsky Yuen's claims that vote row will lead to downgrade are rejected
Think tanks reject Rimsky Yuen’s claim that row may lead to economy’s downgrade
Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung has been criticised for speculating that global think tanks would downgrade Hong Kong's economic ranking if people rejected the government's universal suffrage proposal.
A leading researcher behind a global index that has ranked Hong Kong the world's freest economy for consecutive decades said Yuen misunderstood their concerns.
Terry Miller, the leader of the right-wing US Heritage Foundation's index, said Hong Kong in fact could cause political instability by "reneging on" the promise to deliver one man, one vote.
Yuen suggested last month that agencies that could give Hong Kong a poorer score included The Heritage Foundation, Canada's Fraser Institute, which publishes the Economic Freedom of the World index, and the US-based Milken Institute.
Yuen said he feared that a lower rating might "kick-start a domino impact on our trade, our economic development, [and] overall our competitiveness".
He made the plea when asking Hongkongers to accept even an imperfect proposal for the 2017 chief executive election.
But none of the key researchers at the three institutions shared Yuen's view.