HK rejoices loss of silly title

As if Hong Kong’s bureaucrats are not miserable enough, the Heritage Foundation relegates the city from first to second place in its oh-so important list of Freest Economies in the Solar System.

Apart from the bureaucrats and the dogmatic fetishists of the Heritage Foundation itself, few took the ranking seriously. Anyone who understood the benefits of free markets wondered why the top spot kept going to a place where the state owns all the land and official policy distorts the whole domestic economy to benefit four or five families who operate a property development cartel.

Presumably, the logic was that ‘freedom’ = allowing tycoons to force Hong Kong middle-class home-buyers into semi-serfdom. The Heritage Foundation adored Hong Kong’s economy for how it worked in theory, rather than in practice. Perhaps Singapore’s leaders will be less enthralled with the think-tank’s attentions.

While the inevitable sulky HK government statement ensues, the Chinese authorities make clear their opinion of freedom by kicking out all US citizens working for the NY Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

The pretext is retaliation, though there is an obvious underlying desire to silence these outlets’ highly effective and embarrassing reporting on (in particular) Xinjiang concentration camps and the CCP’s disastrous handling of the Wuhan Virus. Most of all, it’s a Panda-tantrum – Beijing throwing all its toys on the floor in frustration at a world that won’t buy the CCP’s perverse fantasy of how and where the disease broke out.

Beijing is also apparently forbidding the expelled journalists from working in Hong Kong (where some might have residency, and would not require PRC Foreign Ministry press passes). As HK Free Press points out, this would seem to run counter to press freedom, and specifically Basic Law Article 33 guaranteeing residents freedom of choice of occupation. At least, when Hong Kong officials try to squirm out of explaining it, they won’t have to worry whether it means losing the precious Freest Economy tag.

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18 Responses to HK rejoices loss of silly title

  1. asiaseen says:

    “It is relevant to note that Hong Kong’s scores in the three components relating to the rule of law – ‘Property Rights’, ‘Judicial Effectiveness’ and ‘Government Integrity’ – have all increased in the 2020 Index of Economic Freedom,”

    Government Integrity? The Heritage Foundation must have a very strange definition of integrity.

  2. donkeynuts says:

    You kind of missed the big story, big lychee. The Pomeranian died, and the SCMP keeps trying to squeeze drops of panic out of the story by alluding to its COVID19 diagnosis, which we already now know has nothing to do with its death. It was 17 years old, and probably died in the divorce battle between the owner and the AFCD, which uneccesarily tried to quarantine the thing because it thought it had the world’s first case of Human to Pomeranian transmission. Listen, if Zsa Zsa Gabor’s dogs never got sick, this one wasn’t going to. Thanks!

  3. Reactor #4 says:

    “CCP’s disastrous handling of the Wuhan Virus.”

    Presumably, in the near future you’ll be able to reinforce this point by showing us how well those Western democratic countries fared in handling Covid-19. I suggest that Friday May 1, or thereabouts (+6 weeks and 2 days), might be a suitable instant when you can update us on this issue. I, though, am pretty sure/verging on certain that the numbers will not look good. I also suspect you’ll be pleased as punch that you are nestled in the Motherland’s comforting bosom.

  4. pd says:

    China doesn’t recognise that evil foreigners can be HK residents: cf the signs at the border or the HK government’s declarations concerning HK people’s rights and duties overseas.

    I wonder whether Hemlock’s online activities count as journalism and whether he has a US passport…

  5. PaperCuts says:

    I blame philanthropist Eric Hotung that turncoat swindler

  6. Des Espoir says:

    Meanwhile, the situation in Europe with the virus is getting bad – apparently in Germany people are stocking up on sausages and cheese – clearly preparing for a for a wurst käse scenario…

  7. Yeah I know, I really shouldn’t respond to his provocations, but today’s is more than usually silly. Can Reactor #4 name one western democratic country that has tried to silence any doctor warning about the disease, or has promoted a conspiracy theory that it originated anywhere else than where it obviously did? That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve handled the pandemic 100% effectively, but at least the public in those countries is free to point out their governments’ mistakes, spurring them to raise their game.

  8. Guest says:

    Taiwan isn’t in the West, but it’s a democracy and seems to be handling the outbreak quite well.

  9. Patrick says:

    CCP’s disastrous: Nuf said

  10. Hong Kong Hibernian says:

    No doubt The Vatican will issue a statement blessing not only the commie campaign to develop “religion with Chinese characteristics”, but also this new campaign to purify the motherland of fake news organizations.

    @Des Espoir: I’ll be stealing your jokes, thank you.

  11. PaperCuts says:

    Western democratic countries are literally giddy at this great time of opportunity. Them and their bum chum media buddies are besides themselves with glee. They get to play real actual authorities while the peasants furrow their brows in a vain attempt to understand the situation. You’d have to be a total moron not to declare this whole global thing “fishy in the extreme”.

  12. Justsayin says:

    @Des Espoir well played

    If the CCP had done a proper job clamping down on WuFlu like was done with SARS in 2003, the world would not currently be in this mess.

  13. Joe Blow says:

    In Washington they call it ‘Kung Flu’.

  14. Reactor #4 says:

    This is how crap Western democratic countries are at dealing with this crisis:

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1256685/Coronavirus-UK-Boris-Johnson-lockdown-NHS-figures-cases-death-toll-latest-news-updates

    In the USA (the Land of the 4ckin Free), gun stores cannot secure enough weapons to sell on; vast numbers of people are now shitting themselves that their neighbours might want a piece of their bog-roll hoard and/or spam stash.

  15. Quentin Quarantino says:

    Maybe Jacky Chan can make a comedy movie about ‘Kung Flu’. After all, he is a s funny as a hole in the head.

  16. Stanley Lieber says:

    @PaperCuts

    You’re on target when you cite the glee with which governmental authorities around the globe are pushing the little people around, generally to no good effect.

    Hong Kong & Singapore have already demonstrated that a key to combatting the virus is sensible personal behaviour and heightened personal hygiene, rather than governmental action.

    Nevertheless, as one of Mr. Obama’s top lieutenants said early in his presidency, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do things you could not do before.”

    The power-mad creeps are loving it.

  17. WuFlu says:

    Fcking Moron #4 must in reality be Fcking Moron #1 as I find it difficult to believe that there can three worse than him on the world scale of morons; by comparison, even Trump must only be #5.

    The CCP did absolutely nothing to shut down China’s dangerous and disgusting wildlife meat trade after giving the world SARS. Now they have done it again and given the world SARS-CoV-2.

    The virus clearly emerged in late November 2019 but they covered it up for a month instead of announcing it and treating it immediately as a controllable local outbreak and allowing virologists from around the world to come in and assist.

    Now we have a dangerous pandemic and resultant economic collapse and the relatives of the dead and all those who lose their livelihoods should ensure that the world never forgets who was responsible.

  18. Reactor #4 says:

    @ WuFlu

    The Wuhan wet market was not the primary source of Covid-19. There are way too many irregularities for that thesis to have any credence. At some stage it will be possible to construct for the virus an all-encompassing DNA-based strain-variant “family tree” – I am 100% certain that it will not be rooted in Hubei. Moreover, when the molecular biologists get round to revealing the location, there’s going to be one hell of a shit-storm.

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