Macao’s relations with mainland strong despite HK protests

Macao celebrates the 15th anniversity of its handover to Beijing. (Photo: China News)

Fifteen years after Macao's handover to Beijing, Xi Jinping will visit the Special Administrative Region for a ceremony on Saturday. Why has the gambling port remained quiet while neighboring Hong Kong has erupted in protest?

"Macao is an ever-evolving city, but what remains unchanged is that we adapt to changes in environment," said Antonio Ng, 29, a local resident who has witnessed his hometown's rapid changes in the past 15 years since its return to China.

The Special Administrative Region is poised to celebrate on Saturday its handover back to China, when President Xi Jinping will visit Macao for the first time since taking office in 2012. Xi's expected presence has been described by observers as "major recognition of Macao's development" as the city has been dubbed a successful model of the "One Country, Two Systems" for its stellar economic performance and political stability.

As Macao's handover anniversary follows the end of rising anti-mainland two-month Occupy protest in neighboring Hong Kong, many have wondered why Macao's relations with the mainland seem so much better.

Gambling and building

Ng spoke nostalgically as he walked past the Senate Square, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Historic Centre of Macao. He contrasted the glitz and glamour of the gambling industry is Macao's well-preserved historical architecture and ordinary people's hardworking daily life.

"Macao has changed a lot, particularly in the last five to 10 years. Every time I came back there were new casinos built. I was fascinated by all those changes," Ng told the Global Times.

To the young resident, Macao is a city in the making, with construction everywhere. Before he came back to Macao in 2011 to start his career in the government, Ng went to study in Taiwan and Hong Kong since 2003, a year after the Macao government opened up the casino market in 2002. "It was when all the changes started to emerge," he said.

Macao had become a very different place when Ng returned in 2011, as it has transformed from what he described as a "small village" before the handover to a high-flying city with mega gaming hubs equipped with luxury hotel clusters and private jet airports.

The quality of life has improved among ordinary Macao residents too, said Ng as he sat down to take a sip of coffee. "Small cafes like this have sprung up in recent years as we have earned more and spent more on leisure and luxury."

Growing alongside the number of casinos is Macao's GDP and its people's purchasing power. As it became the world's largest gambling center in 2006, it has become one of the world's richest cities with the highest GDP per capita by purchasing power parity as of 2013, according to the World Bank.

Macao now rakes in seven times the revenue of Las Vegas, with gaming accounting for 80 percent of the city's income.

This pillar industry has given Macao one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, as the unemployment rate has dropped from 6.8 percent in 2000 to 1.7 percent in 2014, reported the Macau Daily Times.

"The development of tourism depends heavily on policy support. Macao's economy would not enjoy such rapid development if it wasn't because of a series of assisting policies from the central government," Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Director of Macao Government Tourist Office, told the Global Times.

Macao's visitor numbers experienced rapid rise after the Macao government ended the monopoly system, granted licenses to three major casinos in 2002 and started the Individual Visit Scheme in 2003, said Fernandes.

"It has not been an easy path. Before the handover, and around 1997 to 1999, many people didn't feel certain about Macao's future as it was plagued with a high crime rate and sluggish economy. The tourism industry was hit hard by the SARS epidemic outbreak in 2003. Like Hong Kong, the supporting policy from the Chinese mainland has helped immensely with Macao's rebound," she said.

Fernandes added that although there has been a drop in tourists from Europe and the US in recent years due to financial crisis, visitor numbers from the Chinese mainland and nearby regions are still going strong, with mainlanders eager to gamble - a practice forbidden in the rest of the country.

"Political stability is the key to Macao's economic development which ensures social stability. The One Country Two Systems have maximized Macao's development potential. Xi's attendance at its 15th handover anniversary has proven the central government's recognition for its achievement as a model to uphold the Basic Law and One Country Two Systems," Leng Tiexun, deputy director of One Country Two Systems Research Institute with Macao Polytechnic Institute, told the Global Times.

While many have expressed concerns whether Hong Kong's recent volatility has impacted the politically stable Macao, Leng believes the nature of Macao's society could prevent any copycat mass protest from happening.

"Unlike the situation in Hong Kong, there is a much stronger presence of groups which 'love the country and love Macao,' and they serve as the communication platform between the Macao people and its government," said Leng.