Hong Kong is, and will remain, one of the freest economies

The past two years have undoubtedly been very challenging for Hong Kong, socially and economically, and this year has not been any easier either. The 2019 civil unrest was seamlessly followed by ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 is plunging the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's embattled economy further into recession. Local businesses are struggling under strict social distancing measures and slim tourism numbers, with restrictions on group gatherings.

In the midst of all these challenges, we recently had some news that could not come at a worse time. The Heritage Foundation has dropped Hong Kong from its 2021 Index of Economic Freedom, in a decision that also affects China's other special administrative region, Macao.

The Heritage Foundation said it no longer included Hong Kong and Macao because it "measures economic freedom only in independent countries where governments exercise sovereign control of economic policies." In other words, the foundation implies that the governments of Hong Kong and Macao have lost their autonomy in formulating economic policies.

According to the foundation, while Hong Kong and Macao enjoy more economic freedom than the Chinese mainland, "developments in recent years have demonstrated unambiguously that those policies are ultimately controlled from Beijing".

The decision to remove Hong Kong and Macao from the index is completely wrong and biased, and shows a profound lack of understanding of how "one country, two systems" works, as well as what the National Security Law is and what it actually implied for Hong Kong.

Following the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 under the "one country, two systems "principle, by which the region continues to enjoy its distinct political, socioeconomic and legal arrangements under a unified China－for at least 50 years without change, which means 2047 does not need to be the end of the "one country, two systems" formula.

So far, "one country, two systems "has worked well, allowing Hong Kong to become stronger than it was, albeit the riots. In 2017, I did some research comparing, from a socioeconomic perspective, the Hong Kong of 1997 with Hong Kong of 2017. The data showed that Hong Kong was in better shape in 2017 than in 1997. Life expectancy of Hong Kong people increased by eight years over that period, and public rental housing stock increased from 704,300 apartments in 1997 to more than 760,000 in 2017.

The thing that makes some people claim that "one country, two systems" has been undermined is the promulgation of the National Security Law. But let's make no mistake, the law was not and will not be an attempt to undermine Hong Kong's normal status quo, but simply a tool to put an end to the unsustainable situation that Hong Kong was in due to the social unrest.

Almost every nation has laws to protect its national security, including the United States. Some businessmen and investors have been worried about the national security law. But the new legislation has proved to be beneficial because it brought back stability and security while preserving Hong Kong's special status, which has not been challenged.

In June, senior Chinese officials tasked with the Hong Kong portfolio publicly asserted that 99.9 percent of Hong Kong people would not be affected by the new law, since it targets only separatist activities, subversion of State power, terrorism and foreign interference.

Nine months later, most Hong Kong people can state that they indeed have not been affected by the National Security Law in any negative way.

So if the US also has laws to protect national security, as most countries do, and if similar laws in other countries are actually harsher, what is all this fuss about? Hong Kong has been treated as a chess piece in US-Sino relations.

As Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said, the city still enjoys economic competitiveness, with free flow of capital continuing under "one country, two systems", and the rule of law is respected in the city.

Regardless of what changes have been made to the economic freedom index, Hong Kong remains one of the world's freest economies, one of the most important global financial hubs and one of the best places in the world to do business.

The author is a member of the blockchain, digital banking and Greater Bay Area committees at the FinTech Association of Hong Kong. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.