Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
Hong Kong dropped from Economic Freedom Index as policies
'controlled from Beijing'
Reuters Thu., March 4, 2021, 12:18 a.m.
By Clare Jim
HONG KONG, March 4 (Reuters) - Hong Kong has been excluded
from the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom because its economic
policies are controlled from Beijing, the Washington-based think tank said,
removing Hong Kong from a list it topped for 25 years up to 2019.
The title of the world's freest economy for 2021 was retained by Singapore for the second year, the Heritage Foundation said, with Hong Kong's investment freedom hurt by political and social unrest dating back to 2019.
In the 2021 index published on Thursday, the foundation said Hong Kong and Macau, both special administrative regions of China, were no longer included because even though citizens enjoy more economic freedom than the average resident of China, "developments in recent years have demonstrated unambiguously that those policies are ultimately controlled from Beijing".
Developments in Hong Kong or Macau that are relevant to economic freedom would be considered in the context of China's evaluation in the index, it added. China slipped to 107 from 103, among the list of 178 countries.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong government's financial secretary expressed "deep disappointment" at the decision.
"The decision is neither warranted nor justified. It does not do justice to (Hong Kong)," the spokesman said, adding that the claim that the city's economic policies are controlled by Beijing is "ill-conceived and simply not true".
He added that the assessment was "politically biased" and that Hong Kong's core economic competitiveness, including free flow of capital, remains under the "one country, two systems" formula of governance put in place in 1997 when the city reverted from British to Chinese rule.
The U.S. suspended Hong Kong's preferential tariff rates for exports to the country and imposed sanctions on Hong Kong and Beijing officials last year in response to China's imposition of a national security law on the former British colony, saying it undermined the city's high autonomy.
Earlier this week, London-based non-governmental organisation Hong Kong Watch said in a report that "red capital" - money originating from mainland China - had fundamentally shaped Hong Kong's politics, media and the city's status as a business hub.
In 2019, 82% of IPOs in Hong Kong were by mainland companies, while in October 2020, mainland equities comprised 57.3% of the Hang Seng Index by weighting, the group said.
Translation
(路透)香港3月4日電 --- 總部位於華盛頓的智囊團稱，香港因其經濟政策受到北京的控制, 已被美國傳統基金會從經濟自由指數中刪除, 將香港從直到2019年連續25年高居榜首的名單中剔除。
傳統基金會稱，新加坡稱為2021年全球最自由經濟體, 連續第二年蟬聯,而香港的投資自由, 從2019年以來由於政治和社會動盪，受到了損害。
該基金會在周四發布的2021年指數中表示，他們不再包括香港和澳門這兩個中國的特別行政區，因為儘管公民享有比中國普通居民更多的經濟自由，但“近年來的發展已明確表明其政策最終由北京控制”。
報告補充說，香港或澳門與經濟自由有關的發展, 將歸納在中國之下進行考慮指數評估。在178個國家中，中國從103個滑落至107個。
香港政府財政司司長發言人對這一決定表示“深切的失望”。
發言人說：“這一決定既無必要，也無道理。這是（對香港）不公正的” 。他補充說，聲稱這個城市的經濟政策是由北京控制的說法是“錯誤的想法，根本就是不正確的”。
他補充說，評估是“有政治偏見”，而香港的核心經濟競爭力，包括資本的自由流動，仍然是在“一國兩制”的治理規則下實行的。這種治理模式是由1997年香港從英國回歸到中國時實行的。
去年，由於中國對前英國殖民地施加了國家安全法，美國暫停執行香港對本國出口的特惠關稅稅率,並對香港和北京官員實施制裁，稱國家安全法削弱了香港的高度自治權。
批評國家安全法的人仕說，這是為了鎮壓異議。而北京和香港當局說，該法律有必要在反政府和反中國動亂後恢復穩定。
本週早些時候，總部位於倫敦的非政府組織“香港監察”在一份報告中說，“紅色資本”（源自中國大陸的資金）從根本上改變了香港的政治，媒體和作為商業中心城市的地位。
該組織表示，2019年香港有82％的IPO是由中國內地公司進行的，而到2020年10月，中國大陸股票佔恆生指數的比重為57.3％。
I believe
in the Foundation’s saying that while people in Hong Kong and Macau, both
special administrative regions of China, are enjoying more economic freedom
than the average resident inside China, the developments in Hong Kong in recent
years have demonstrated clearly that the policies in these two places are
ultimately controlled by Beijing. Such
control has fundamentally reshaped Hong Kong's politics, media and the city's
status as a business center.
沒有留言:
張貼留言