Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan argued that Hong Kong should be included in the Index of Economic Freedom, after the Heritage Foundation dropped the city from the annual list, where it occupied the top position for over two decades.

In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, published on Wednesday, Chan said the foundation’s founder Edwin Feulner’s explanation of the decision is “flawed and inexplicable.”

Citing the Basic Law and the “one country, two systems” principle, Chan argued that Hong Kong is a separate customs territory and the second-largest IPO market in the world last year. “The above speaks volumes about Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy over its economic, financial and trade policies and makes plain that our exclusion from the index was nothing but politically biased,” the minister wrote.

The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal wrote in response on Wednesday, striking down Chan’s arguments.

“Chan has the impossible task of denying what everyone can plainly see: China’s Communist Party is remaking Hong Kong in its own Mainland image,” the editor wrote.

While the Sino-British Joint Declaration laid out the terms of Hong Kong’s autonomy under the “one country, two systems” framework, Beijing has declared that the historical document is void, it added.

The editorial also established that it is impossible for economic freedom to remain intact in view of growing political repression, citing the persecution of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai under the national security law and Beijing’s pressure on international corporations such as HSBC and Cathay Pacific Airways over political issues.

“Our advice to Mr. Chan is to stop trying to convince the world that Hong Kong is what it was and accept that he’s now flacking for the man who really runs Hong Kong: Chinese President Xi Jinping,” the editorial concluded.

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