Hong Kong is China's duty free port for the wealthy leadership and technocrats in the good graces of the leadership along with something of a safety valve for small time smugglers bringing in baby powder, chocolates, and whatever else the government chooses to ignore.
Looking at something and saying it's exceptional without taking note of the exceptions that created that exception is absurd. At best an inability to think the situation through and at worst a straw-man argument which is exactly what Friedman acolytes use it for, a straw-man argument.
The US grew into an industrial powerhouse with tariffs as the primary source of Federal funding. Not only did they protect US industry, relying on tariffs rather than income taxes limited the power of the Federal government.
People talk about the inequity of the income tax and how Congress is out of control saying "we have to get back to the Constitution". You can't get there from here as unless the 16th and 17th Amendments are repealed.
Hong Kong’s success was not due to political force from the U.S. It was due to their free market economy that was essentially tax free. Hong Kong became an economic powerhouse (before China reclaimed it) by voluntary, unencumbered transactions in their marketplace.