A number of netizens rebutted Agence France-Presse (AFP) and defended Hong Kong on social media platform Twitter on Wednesday after a tweet by the news agency said that Hong Kong's GDP growth, in relation with the mainland's, has proportionally decreased over the past years.

The tweet posted by AFP also noted that Hong Kong's economy faces an uncertain future.

AFP backed its remarks with data on Hong Kong's GDP that show it has gone, from the equivalent of about 18 percent of the Chinese mainland's GDP in 1997, to less than 3 percent in 2020. AFP also posted a chart on Hong Kong's economic output between 1997 and 2020, citing data from the World Bank.

A number of netizens replied to refute AFP's "logic" on Wednesday. One netizen said that "maybe, because mainland's GDP has been rising all the time?" Another asked AFP if this is how they "brainwash" Westerners.

Another netizen also replied to AFP with the example of France, saying that using AFP's logic, France's economy faces an uncertain future as well because its GDP, compared with the Chinese mainland's, has also dropped a lot in the past two decades.

There is also one netizen who pointed out that HK's per capita GDP was higher than the UK's both in 1997 and 2020.

According to data published by the World Bank, HK's per capita GDP stood at $27,330 in 1997 and $46,324 in 2020, whereas the UK's per capita GDP was $26,719 and $40,284 in 1997 and 2020.