Beijing-Macau Relations

In an article titled Hong Kong and Macau under One Country, Two Systems, Chou Kwok Ping explained why relations between the two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) and Beijing differed after their respective handovers in 1997 and 1999.

Unlike issues affecting Hong Kong, those affecting Macau were generally less well-known.

These included inexperienced local officials being promoted to senior positions to replace their non-Chinese counterparts, the wastage and overspending of municipal councils, and the discontentment with rising social inequality in the wake of the 2002 gambling liberalizations.

They also included the collusion between government and business over labor import and land sale, culminating in the 2006 Labor Day demonstration involving over 3,000 people, said to be the largest since the 1989 June Fourth Incident.

"These issues, however, neither undermined people's trust in the handover of sovereignty and in the Chinese government nor adversely affected Beijing-Macau relations. Local people tend to blame domestic factors rather than the Beijing government for the problems," Chou wrote. (Interpreting China's Development, Ed. Wang Gungwu and John Wong, World Scientific Publishing, 2007).

Another reason for the more amicable relations between Beijing and Macau is, according to Chou, the limited success of Macau democrats in amassing public support. This reportedly made it easier - unlike the case in Hong Kong - for both governments to contain disputes affecting Beijing-Macau relations.