Hong Kong (AFP)

Hong Kong is not this year in the annual ranking of the freest economies on the planet, at the top of which the city has long pranced, the think tank that created it believing that it is now controlled directly by Beijing.

This announcement is a serious blow to the reputation of Hong Kong, which is the subject of a strong takeover of Beijing in the wake of the immense pro-democracy mobilization that has shaken the semi-autonomous region for months in 2019.

The Heritage Foundation, an American conservative think tank, publishes an annual ranking of countries and territories that enjoy free economies.

It is established on the basis of the degree to which the laws and regulations of the various countries are favorable to the business.

With the exception of one year, Hong Kong has been at the top of this ranking for 26 years.

It has always been a source of pride for the city government, which has often highlighted this distinction in its press releases and brochures for investors.

But Hong Kong does not appear in the 2021 ranking published on Thursday, the authors of this index believing that the territory is no longer sufficiently autonomous from Beijing to justify the fact that it appears there separately.

"The loss of political freedom and autonomy that Hong Kong has suffered over the past two years has made this city almost indistinguishable, in many ways, from other major Chinese shopping centers like Shanghai and Beijing," wrote in the Wall on Wednesday. Street Journal Edwin J. Feulner, the founder of the Heritage Foundation.

"The ties between (Hong Kong) and Beijing are growing stronger, while traditions inherited from the former British colonial power, such as Common Law, freedom of speech and democracy, have weakened considerably." , according to him.

The Heritage Foundation is a major think tank influencing American financial conservatives.

Each year, the Hong Kong executive, aligned with Beijing, welcomed the city's first place in its ranking.

In 2019, when Hong Kong topped the rankings for the 25th year in a row, the government said this attested to "its resilience economically, its high-quality legal framework, its high degree of transparency. government, its effective legal framework and its openness to world trade ".

Last year, the city had moved from first place to second, replaced at the top of the ranking by rival Singapore, after Beijing imposed a very restrictive national security law.

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© 2021 AFP