“Hong Kong's per capita GDP is among the highest in the world. But it was once a worse mess than Detroit. Devastated by Japanese occupation, the British colony's population had declined from 1.6 million in 1941 to 600,000 by 1945. Then, after the 1949 communist victory on the mainland, a million refugees arrived. Most of them were penniless. Britain's Labor government was penniless, too. Maybe Hong Kong could have gone into Chapter 9. But who would have been the bankruptcy judge? Chairman Mao? Instead Hong Kong had the good fortune to get John (later Sir John) Cowperthwaite, a young official sent out to push the colony's economy toward recovery. "I did very little," he once said. "All I did was to try to prevent some of the things that might undo it." Such as taxes. Even now, Hong Kong has no sales tax; no VAT; no taxes on capital gains, interest income or earnings outside Hong Kong; no import or export duties; and a top personal income-tax rate of 15%. Cowperthwaite was financial secretary from 1961 to 1971, Hong Kong's period of fastest economic growth. Sir John, however, wouldn't allow collection of economic statistics for fear they'd lead to political meddling. Some statistics nonetheless: During Cowperthwaite's tenure, Hong Kong's exports grew by an average of 13.8% a year, industrial wages doubled and the number of households in extreme poverty shrank from half to 16%. ”
