I haven't visited Shanghai, so I can't speak to it. I have been to Shenzhen. It is a sprawling, dirty factory town that someone told me was like a land locked Hong Kong, but I didn't see it. Sure the companies were raiding each others workers, but it seemed most people wanted to be worker bees.

I agree that Singapore doesn't have the raw, in your face entrepreneurial spirit the old Hong Kong did, but they are closer than the new Hong Kong.

At one level you are right about HK trading colonial governments. But have you looked at the newspapers. I first went to HK in the early 80's. There was very little discussion among normal people about HK return to China. What little there was fell into the same category of Southerner's "The South's gonna rise again". The papers were very open in pointing out local scandals by politicians, expressing their views, etc.

I visited several times before turn over and several times since (including less than a month after turn over). Right after the turn over, the paper was running a front page, above the fold article about 13 local high school boys who volunteered to receive training with the PRC army in some sort of a reserve or militia aspect (apparently they were the only 13 who volunteered). The big revelation in the story, the boys were tired after a 10 mile march and the machine gun they took turns carrying was heavy. I haven't seen nearly as tough of reporting in the papers after the turnover and a lot more puff pieces about the wonders of being part of China. There does seem to be a few writers who continue to try to call the PRC on things, but they are few and you can see they pull their punches.

Dealing with people, I see a lot of the entrepreneur spirit that was very evident prior to the turnover is now missing. Before the turnover, it seemed that most of the people I dealt with working for someone else were just doing it until they could get their own company started. After the turnover, that seems to be missing. Immediately after the turn over, there was a real rarity in seeing shops closed. Before it seemed someone was making economic use out of every space. The number of boarded up shops has declined, but there certainly doesn't seem to be the same intensity and density there was before.

Some of that is because they are opening up new areas in the colony and just over the border which takes off pressure from the former core of the colony. But HK had a definite brain/entrepreneur drain due to the turnover and they aren't the same. Those who would talk privately said Singapore was becoming like the old HK.

In short, there is a case to be made that the new boss is the same as the old boss, but there is a definite fact that free speech has taken a big hit in HK.

steve; what is the purpose of a nation or national boundaries?should citizens expect their government to protect their interests under any circumstances? is a nations standard of living worth any protection? are wages always just theft of profit? should americans be willing to resort to a filthy environment, unsafe working conditions, and child labor, in order to compete for slave wages? is corporate profit the only value a nation should embrace? just asking!

No, your just being annoying.

Anyone want to clue me in on what factors caused the down grade from 8.6 to 8.2?

There were significant declines in legal structure and security of property rights (peaked in 2000 with 9.2, but declined to 7.8 by 2004). Freedom to exchange with foreigners also took a hit (Hello Mr. Bush and his protectionist policies).

8:5 it’s bond-financed debt, i.e. the budget deficit.

Nope.

Anyone want to clue me in on what factors caused the down grade from 8.6 to 8.2?

8:5 it's bond-financed debt, i.e. the budget deficit.

I think this also speaks to the early post about free markets being a key to economic success. Hong Kong and Singapore both have a very vibrant entrepreneurship culture. But since the turn over Hong Kong has had a huge decrease in political freedom (newspapers censored, no meaningful elections, control from Beijing, etc). Likewise, Singapore has some laws that we would find repressive from a personal freedom standpoint. So this is emphatically delinking personal freedom from economic freedom.

If you believe that economic freedom is a good future predictor of economic power, the only country that is at all a contender to the US is the UK and Hong Kong as it is a part of China.

Nor do I find any explanation for the country's absence. Guess I'll have to go ask Cato Instit.