Measures of Freedom
Economic Freedom Summary Index,
Economic Freedom of the World, 19 Sep 2023
2021 Overall score: 8.55, Rank: 2
Hong Kong: Freedom in the World 2024 Country Report,
Freedom in the World 2024
2024: Status: Partly Free, Aggregate Score: 41/100, Political Rights: 9/40, Civil Liberties: 32/60
The people of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, traditionally enjoyed substantial civil liberties and the rule of law under their local constitution, the Basic Law. However, the 2020 implementation of the National Security Law (NSL) has amounted a multifront attack on the "one country, two systems" framework.
Human Freedom Index [PDF],
The Human Freedom Index 2023: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom
2021: 7.70, Rank: 46, Personal freedom: 7.10, Economic freedom: 8.55
Articles
A Free-Market Constitution for Hong Kong: A Blueprint for China [PDF], by Alvin Rabushka,
Cato Journal, 1989
Discusses the draft of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), expected to be promulgated in 1990 (actually adopted 4 April 1990 and went into effect 1 July 1997), as a "free-market constitution"
Founded as a free port in 1841, Hong Kong has an economy today that depends on export-oriented light manufacturing industries along with a myriad of servicing industries within a free-port, free-enterprise environment. Highly developed banking, insurance, and shipping systems complement its industrial sector ... In short, free trade, free markets, low taxes, nonintervention, and personal liberty are the hallmarks of Hong Kong's economic success ... Hong Kong's resilient capitalistic economy has successfully weathered international recessions, trade quarrels, oil shocks, and internal disputes.
Hong Kong's Legacy, by James A. Dorn,
The Journal of Commerce, 1 Jul 1999
Discusses the potential results of Hong Kong moving away from "its policy of laissez-faire capitalism" such as intervening in support of stock prices versus the effects of Hong Kong influencing mainland China towards a freer and more prosperous economy
Hong Kong's third year as a Special Administrative Region of China begins today. ... Hong Kong cannot afford to allow corruption to creep into its institutional infrastructure if it wants to preserve its legacy as the crown jewel of market liberalism. The principle of non-intervention that has served the former colony so well—as Sir John Cowperthwaite, financial secretary from 1961 to 1971, constantly reminded Hong Kong's Legislative Council—must not give way to pressures for a "third way." ... The danger to the Special Administrative Region (SAR) comes more from internal than external forces.
Liberty's Gilded Door,
The Wall Street Journal, 11 Mar 1992
Editorial condemning Hong Kong's actions preventing Vietnamese refugees from taking asylum there and mostly inaction by the George H. W. Bush administration
Hong Kong's administration calls it a success to have finally deterred Vietnamese boat people from seeking asylum in the British Crown Colony. Hong Kong's authorities announced proudly that for the first time in seven years, the number of new Vietnamese refugee arrivals in Hong Kong dropped to zero ... Hong Kong's government has since 1989 sent back three batches of boat people against their will ... It is pathetic to see Hong Kong officials congratulating themselves that they have succeeded in broadcasting the message that Hong Kong will no longer serve as a haven of liberty in Asia.
What Beijing needs to learn from Hong Kong, by James A. Dorn,
South China Morning Post, 26 Sep 2003
Discusses China's recent progress in economic liberalization and the need for further reform, particularly in protecting private property
Hong Kong's demand for limiting the reach of the Chinese government, as witnessed by the mass demonstrations against the proposed anti-subversion law, is a sign that Hong Kong's quest for political freedom may spread to the mainland. As the Wall Street Journal said: "Having been forced to give ground on civil liberties, Beijing is learning in Hong Kong that economic freedom has political consequences." ... Hong Kong has taught us that economic liberalism is a catalyst for peace and prosperity. We must continue to advocate it, but also remember that economic reform is not enough.
Reviews
Book Review: Red Flag Over Hong Kong, by
Richard M. Ebeling,
Freedom Daily, Jan 1997
Revew of
Red Flag Over Hong Kong (1996) by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, David Newman and Alvin Rabushka, which discusses the then potential effects of the handover of Hong Kong to China
On July 1, 1997, [155] years of Western rule will come to an end, and the five and a half million residents will be handed over to the tender mercies of the communist authorities ... What has made Hong Kong the free and prosperous place that it is, the authors argue, has been individual rights; rule of law; private property; a very free market in all production, commerce and trade; low and nondiscriminatory taxes; and a high degree of confidence that freedom and free enterprise would be protected and respected. This has been in stark contrast to China's history and present practices.
Interviews
Interview with Adam Smith [via Edwin West], by
E. G. West,
The Region, Jun 1994
Professor Edwin G. West stands in for Adam Smith and answers questions from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis banking and policy issues magazine,
The Region
Smith: Are the economic premises in America different from those in Asia? ... One Asian country, in fact, comes much closer to my ideal market economy than does modern America. Hong Kong has had considerably more economic freedom than the United States since the 1950s. There have been no tariffs and no import or export quotas except those such as textile export quotas forced upon Hong Kong by US protectionists ... Taxes in Hong Kong have ranged between 10 percent and 20 percent of the national income, which is very much lower than in the United States ...
Related Topics:
Banking,
Central Banking,
Economic Freedom,
Educational Freedom,
India,
Japan,
John Stuart Mill,
Minimum Wage Laws,
Russia,
Adam Smith,
Taxation
Videos
Free Trade vs. Protectionism, by
Don Boudreaux, 31 Aug 2011
Defines free trade and protectionism, the use of tariffs to implement the latter, and gives Hong Kong and the United States as examples of the benefits of free trade
The greatest example [of free trade in practice] is Hong Kong. Hong Kong has virtually no natural resources; I think feldspar is the chief natural resource of Hong Kong. And Hong Kong is one of the world's most wealthy places. And the reason Hong Kong is wealthy is because for years Hong Kong has had a policy of pretty much unilateral free trade. It has a deep water port, and it allows its citizens to buy, on whatever terms its citizens want to buy, goods and services from wherever else in the world they want to buy those goods and services. As a result, Hong Kong is very, very rich.