Xi: Macau is “a pearl on the palm” of the motherland
Originally published on Global Voices
Screenshot from video “WATCH LIVE: Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Macau” on South China Morning Post's YouTube channel. Fair use.
Chinese president Xi Jinping arrived in Macau on December 18, 2024, for a three-day visit to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the former Portuguese colony’s reunification with China.
Xi will also inaugurate the city's new chief executive, Sam Hou Fai, a former top judge born and educated in mainland China, who will diversify the casino city’s economy in the coming years.
Macau, a southern Chinese city with a population of about 700,000, was handed over to China by Portugal on December 20, 1999, under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework that guarantees the capitalist lifestyle and a high degree of administrative autonomy for at least 50 years. The same political system was applied to Hong Kong when the former British colonial city was returned to China on July 1, 1997.
Macau has become the world’s top gambling hub in the past two decades, surpassing Las Vegas, as Beijing turned a green light on the city's casino economy by letting annually millions of mainland Chinese visitors travel to the city for gaming and luxurious consumption. Currently, the city is ranked the second richest jurisdiction by GDP per capita in the world, after Luxembourg.
Upon landing in a special plane in Macau, Chinese top leader Xi Jinping described the city as “a pearl on the palm” of the motherland and a successful showcase of One Country, Two Systems.
President Xi Jinping has urged the Macao Special Administrative Region to fully leverage the institutional advantages of the practice of “one country, two systems”, work hard and be bold in making innovations to create a brighter future for the cherished pearl of the motherland.… pic.twitter.com/e59qpnkiBL
— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) December 19, 2024
On December 20, Xi will inaugurate Sam Hou Fai as the fourth chief executive of Macau since the city's return to China. Sam was the sole candidate blessed by Beijing in the city’s 2024 leadership race. Unlike his predecessors, he was born in mainland China and established his career in the legal field with few local business connections.
Soon after Sam announced his candidacy, he criticized the gaming sector for developing in “an uncontrollable manner.” He vowed to carry out the central government’s proposal for Macau to diversify its economy by fostering non-gaming industries, enhancing Macau’s role as a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking countries and integrating further with the Greater Bay Area.
To ensure the Chinese president’s inspection tour in the casino hub is perfectly safe, Macau authorities have beefed up security measures: security checkpoints were set up in major entry ports, and heavy vehicles were banned from entering the city since December 16.
Apart from barring politically sensitive individuals from visiting the city, diplomats were also temporarily affected, according to a notice put up by the Hong Kong and Macau US Consulate:
This incident occurs ahead of Xi Jinping's visit to #Macau . While HK activists are familiar with the practice of the city's tight entry restriction during “sensitive times”, pushing the policy further to foreign diplomats is seemingly the first time. https://t.co/VxeVkdQVQY
— Michael Mo (@michaelmohk) December 18, 2024
Transportation services, including light rail and ferries, were also temporarily suspended. X (formerly Twitter) user @FY4Chan mocked the measures:
This is presumably because of Xi Jinping's to Macau… and a paranoid fear that someone will travel over by ferry from Hong Kong to try to assassinate — or just protest in front of — him?! https://t.co/jkP6b7s5NU
— YTSL (@FY4Chan) December 18, 2024
In addition, political activists, including those who reside outside Macau, were told not to comment on social media about Xi’s visit. For example, Jason Chao, an activist who migrated to the UK, received text messages from a mainland Chinese security officer days ahead of the 25th anniversary, urging him not to make noises that disrupt the harmonious atmosphere during the important occasion.
As Xi Jinping arrives in Macau for the 25th anniversary of the handover, Macau activist Jason Chao, now exiled in the UK & a UK citizen, was warned against making “inharmonious” statements on social media or to the media. #TransnationalRepressionhttps://t.co/LpN2uI8Mqe
— Hong Kong Democracy Council (@hkdc_us) December 18, 2024
Negative news coverage was forcibly taken down. Independent online news outlet All About Macau informed its readers on Facebook that they were forced to unpublish a report about security measures in Macau. The headline of the report said, “Xi Jinping is set to visit Macau tomorrow, security measures were strengthened in multiple spots, rendering machines and motorcycle parking logs were sealed. Netizens mocked: grasses and trees were treated like an army” (習近平明來澳 多處疑加強戒備 售賣機、電單車位等被封 網民嘲：草木皆兵).
