The Heritage Foundation has dropped Hong Kong from its annual Index of Economic Freedom, citing its lack of autonomy.

“No doubt both Hong Kong and Macau, as special administrative regions, enjoy economic policies that in many respects offer their citizens more economic freedom than is available to the average citizen of China,” editors explain the removal in the foundation’s report. “But developments in recent years have demonstrated unambiguously that those policies are ultimately controlled from Beijing.”

Hong Kong occupied the top position for 25 consecutive years, consistently ranked as the world’s freest economy since the index was first published in 1995, before being overtaken by Singapore last year.

“The loss of political freedom and autonomy suffered by Hong Kong over the past two years has made that city almost indistinguishable in many respects from other major Chinese commercial centers like Shanghai and Beijing,” Edwin Feulner, founder and former president of the Heritage Foundation, wrote in a commentary published on Wall Street Journal.

Hong Kong officials frequently cited the ranking to prove that the city is a competitive financial and business hub.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan disputed the foundation’s assessment. “When they arrived at that decision, they must have been clouded by their ideological inclination and political bias,” he told RTHK on Thursday.

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