While the Washington Post continues to lambast Hong Kong over its National Security Law (NSL), saying recent changes “will chill foreign investment”, the city still enjoys its high ranking in the World Competitive Yearbook (WCY) 2026, a survey undertaken by the International Institute for Management Development.
Hong Kong's global competitiveness has risen for the third consecutive year, up one place to second globally this year, the highest since 2019. It is second only to Singapore and two ranks above Taiwan. The US ranked 10th, 8 points behind Hong Kong.
Among the four competitiveness factors in the WCY 2026, Hong Kong ranks second globally in "government efficiency" and third in "business efficiency". Hong Kong ranks eighth and 11th globally in "infrastructure" and "economic performance" respectively. As regards the various competitiveness sub-factors, Hong Kong tops the rankings in "tax policy" and "business legislation"; ranks second globally in "finance"; third globally in "international trade", "international investment", "management practices" and "education"; and fourth globally in "public finance" and "basic infrastructure".
The Washington Post’s recent commentary on Hong Kong said, “the city’s hardline authorities are making the [NSL] law even more repressive for anyone caught in its net”, that Hong Kong had become “a less secure place to visit or do business” and that the changes “will further chill foreign investment”.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The Hong Kong government said the commentary had exposed the newspaper’s “irrational anti-China stance” and amounted to “wanton slander” and “groundless allegations”.
It is time for the Post to face facts and respect the truth, including honest opinions expressed by its fellow countrymen who invest their money and do business in and with Hong Kong.
The government spokesperson said that, amid rapidly evolving geopolitical dynamics, Hong Kong, with its close connectivity to both the Chinese mainland and the world under the 'one country, two systems' principle, and its sound institutions, open markets and sustained investments in innovation, has become a 'value hub' that offers both security and growth opportunities. In fact, Hong Kong continues to excel in various international rankings including those for economy, finance, and talent.
The International Monetary Fund has also given positive recognition to Hong Kong in recent months, and major credit rating agencies have successively reaffirmed Hong Kong's credit ratings and 'stable' outlook. All these echo the WCY 2026 results.
Even the American Chamber of Commerce here ridiculed the Post by citing an AmCham survey showing increased confidence in the city’s business environment and rule of law.
Last year, Hong Kong knocked Switzerland off its perch for the top spot as the world’s largest cross-border wealth hub while it reclaimed the global initial public offering (IPO) crown for the first time since 2019, with 114 listings raising HK$292 billion. And this year accounting giant Deloitte has estimated that Hong Kong's (IPO) market in the first half of this year had come in second globally, with 78 new listings raising around HK$203.3 billion still with half a year to go.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq claimed the crown for most IPOs after seeing 60 new listings raise HK$872.4 billion during the period, though Deloitte said the stand out performance by the US bourse was largely boosted by SpaceX which alone raised HK$675.8 billion. Without SpaceX's IPO, Hong Kong's stock exchange could have "narrowly surpassed" the Nasdaq to top the world.
The Post is hardly in a position to criticize Hong Kong and should clean up its own backyard before doing so. The troubled Post has been plagued with financial and staff problems in recent years. Staffers also became worried about the CEO and publisher William Lewis’ drinking and uninvolved role in the newsroom. The publisher continued to grapple with declining revenue and readership and sought strategies to regain subscribers lost during the Trump era. In January 2025, the Post announced it will lay off 4 per cent of its staff.
In February 2025, trillionaire wannbe and owner Jeff Bezos announced that the opinion section of the Post would publish only pieces that support "personal liberties and free markets". Within two days of the announcement, it was reported that more than 75,000 digital subscribers had canceled their subscriptions.
As an illustration of its editorial intrusions, the Post editorial board had drafted an endorsement for Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential elections, but it had been blocked by order of Bezos. The move was criticized by former executive editor Martin Baron, who considered it "disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage", and suggested that Bezos was fearing retaliation from US President Donald Trump that could impact Bezos's other businesses.
The Post is “dying in darkness.”
Mark Pinkstone
** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **
Hong Kong’s poverty line has taken a new twist. There is no longer an assessment of those living below the poverty line, but rather a targeted poverty alleviation strategy.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Chris Sun Yuk-Han explained that the poverty line was a very statistical concept that was purely based on income but failed to capture the full scope of need within the community.
In the past, the poverty line was based on 50 per cent of median household income. Currently, that is HK$30,000 for a four-person household or about $10,300 for a single-person household.
Hong Kong’s poverty rate affects more than 1.4 million residents, with significant variations across districts and age groups. Elderly citizens face the highest poverty risk at nearly 45 per cent, while districts like Sham Shui Po and Kwun Tong show concentrated disadvantages.
Government intervention, such as Old Age Living Allowance, reduces the poverty rate from 23.6 per cent to 14.9 per cent after policy measures, highlighting both the scale of need and the impact of social programs on vulnerable populations.
Regionally, Singapore reports a poverty rate around 10 per cent using comparable methodology, Japan’s relative poverty rate reaches 15.7 per cent, and South Korea shows 16.7 per cent. Taiwan registers about 11 per cent.
After dropping the use of the poverty line, the government adopted a new 21-indicator framework on a 227-page Targeted Poverty Alleviation Strategy Report, which identifies the most vulnerable groups and for the first time assess the “social transfer value covering income, employment, assets, reliance on cash welfare, housing, education or training access, and physical health or social connectivity, to identify the city’s neediest groups.
The combined size of three groups identified by the report totalled 1.13 million people across 667,000 households, with the data measured over different years and some individuals belonging to more than one group.
The recognition of health carers in the report is particularly significant, as they often provide essential support without formal compensation. Their inclusion in the expanded assessment framework indicates a growing awareness of their crucial role in society and the potential need for targeted assistance to alleviate their burdens.
Chief Secretary for Administration, Eric Chan Kwok-ki, as chairman of the Commission on Poverty (CoP) has been quoted as saying that by adopting several innovative elements in the report, the CoP seeks to present how the Government's allocation of resources improves the living standards of beneficiary households, so that the public could better perceive the direct relevance between the policies and their own interests. For example, he said, this is the first time that the internationally recognized concept of "social transfer values" was adopted to quantify the social resources transferred to households that benefit from regular housing, health, education, and welfare measures. Such an analysis would reflect in a more comprehensive manner the Government's efforts and effectiveness in alleviating poverty.
A “Pilot Programme on Community Living Room” provides additional living spaces and support services for “sub divided unit” (SDU) households.
The CoP identified three target groups SDU households, single-parent households and elders-only households.
The strategy also encompasses a number of programmes for targeted groups. A “Strive and Rise Programme” focuses on supporting secondary students from underprivileged families particularly those residing in sub divided units (SDUs) to lift them out of intergenerational poverty. The “Teen for a Brighter Future” programme, for example, provides for a school-based after school care service scheme enabling primary students, especially from single parent households to stay at school after school hours to receive supervised care and academic support in familiar and safe environment. This alleviates parenting pressures and facilitates parents to seek employment. For example, a child whose education from kindergarten to university would be subsidized to $2.5 million. It is the first time the government has adopted the international concept of “social transfer values” and measures how much income a family gained by not having to pay full price for public services.
Another reason why the CoP dropped the poverty line indicator was that Hong Kong was now entering a “very ageing society” in which most elderly people no longer earned an income.
Recognizing elders-only households often lack support and attention, CoP says it supports Government’s engagement of Care Teams to visit elderly singletons, doubletons, and three-person-and-above elderly households and refer cases in need to social welfare service units.
However, the success of this new strategy depends on three main elements: accurate implementation—making sure resources reach the intended groups; ongoing monitoring—developing an alternative, comprehensive assessment mechanism to track overall poverty trends; and sustained commitment—maintaining long-term collaboration among government, businesses, and citizens. If implemented effectively, this strategy could create a more holistic and compassionate poverty alleviation system for Hong Kong, shifting from "distributing money to the poor" to "empowering people to escape poverty", thereby maximising the social benefits of limited resources.
