Jiang Qi remembers that first day of October in 1949 well. She was 14 and lived in Shanghai. The communists had won the civil war and a new era of hope was dawning for the Chinese people, the 74 year-old recalls.
300,000 people had massed in Tiananmen Square when Mao Zedong stepped onto the first terrace of the Imperial City, now known as the Forbidden City, faced south and proclaimed the birth of a nation.
At the same time, 491 Radio Station, the first and only international broadcaster in China, spread the message to the world.
The People’s Republic of China was up and running and the nationalists had been routed.
Six decades have passed and today Tiananmen Square is now illuminated by thousands of watts for a ceremony to commemorate the founding of a nation.

Little red book
Jiang Qi has never been a member of The Communist Party but proudly shows off her little red book from the years of the Cultural Revolution.
“I learned English by reading it,” she says, referring to the fact that the book of the thoughts of Chairman Mao was first translated into English in 1966.
When she goes to the Beijing park near her home for tai-chi exercises, Jiang’s neighbours are curious about her English edition: “Everyone has one. But not everyone has a bi-lingual one,”
says Jiang.
“I was 31 when the Cultural Revolution began and there was nothing to do during those years as the schools were all closed,” explains Jiang.
Years before, she studied engineering at university, majoring in communications and radio transmission: “Transmissions and communications in the 50’s were very different from today. It was the party who decided which job we should have,” she remembers.

I saw Chairman Mao
Zhang Bo is an 81 year-old retiree from the People’s Liberation Army.
Educated during the War of Resistance against Japan, Zhang lived the history of the foundation of the People’s Republic.
He and a group of old people gather together in the park early each morning. “Long live President Mao Zedong!” says an old lady greeting the others. Zhang doesn’t react and keep doing his exercises. “That’s my secret for a long life,” he says.
Zhang has watched every anniversary celebration for the past 35 years. 1984 and 1999 are the years he remembers best and adds
That so much has changed in just 10 years.
The Olympic Games are still fresh in people’s minds here.
In 1999 Beijing was still waiting to be chosen as the host city. Ten years later, everywhere you look in Beijing there is something to remind you of the 2008 Games.
Zhang is proud to have followed his country’s rise. But the old military man can’t hide a certain curiosity to know “how Taiwan is”.
Jiang, however, prefers to talk in a more neutral tone: “It doesn’t really matter which party we have as long as everyone can improve their life,” she says.
The red book in her hand is now introduced as a means to an end – learning English. Despite not being a party member, Jiang is happy to proclaim: “I saw Chairman Mao”, and on more than one occasion, she says.

Changing times
Far from the days of work units and women holding up half the sky, the language and thinking of China’s young can be difficult for old people to
understand.
The internet, blogs, mobile phones, hip-hop, DJ’s, gadgets – a new vocabulary for words part of a new China.
Talking to young people about the times of Mao starts to sound like a school class. It can be hard to make them understand what it was like, says Jiang: “We had to be together all the time but at the same time it best was for everyone to mind their own business.”
Forty-year-old Chen Yu works for a national software company in Beijing and he will be away from the capital on holiday when the celebrations
take place.
Chen says: “All of China is commemorating and I can follow the events in another city.”
The father of an eight-year-old son, Chen belongs to the generation who witnessed the reform, which surpassed the Maoist period.
“My son only learns about Chairman Mao in school and I’m happy if he can understand the difference between then and now,” says Chen.

Crucial moment
This year’s celebrations are a crucial moment in defining the confidence of the Chinese people. As the first country to show signs of recovery from the financial crisis, the government has ample reason to celebrate.
In the immediate aftermath of the founding of the PRC, many young people were inspired by revolutionary ideals, so it’s not difficult to meet 50 year-old men or women with names containing characters like “comrade”, “construction” or “red”. Last year, the Olympic Games created a phenomenon among parents who named their babies “Ao Yun”, the Chinese name for the Games.
The history of the country can also be read through its names. Less communist and more nationalist, the younger generations are used to hearing about China in terms of economic growth and development.
Jiang, Zhang and Chen all agree on something – they are not just commemorating the past 60 years but also “the better way in which we live now.”

Motherland and me marching together
The grand military parade and the mass demonstration in Tiananmen Square will take place in the morning.
More than 200,000 people have taken part in rehearsals since the middle of August for a ceremony that is expected to impress as much as the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games.
President Hu Jintao will give the opening speech in the square, praising the foundation and construction of China over the past six decades.
A tight security regime will police a hand-picked audience of 100,000 and an area of 400,000 square-metres around the square, and Chang’An Avenue has been declared a no-go area, as the parade passes by for about two hours.
At night a special gala will illuminate Tiananmen and there will be
fireworks.
All over the city the main avenues are decorated with flowers and long banners commemorating the anniversary. No effort has been spared to make this anniversary unforgettable.

by Maria João Belchior in Beijing

Enemies to partners

Over the past 60 years, China and the United States have fought on opposite sides in wars and for the first three decades, shunned diplomatic relations. But 2009 marks an important anniversary – 30 years of formal ties

There was a time when ideology kept them apart.
Up until 1972 when United States President Richard Nixon made his historic visit to China, the only meetings between the two nations had to take place at an informal level and on neutral ground.
Today, the world’s two biggest powers deal less on an ideological level and more on in the areas of development and economic growth.
“There will always be some disagreement but never compared to those years,” says Professor Niu Ge from Peking University’s History Department.
The two nations’ fortunes are inextricably linked as their economies are intertwined. Beijing no longer uses the word “imperialist” and Washington has given up on the “communist” label.
The 21st century will be marked by how the two giants get along in the key areas of trade, the environment and energy.

Changed days
A key conference, “Looking ahead after 30 Years”, takes place in Beijing this month, at which former US President George Bush Snr among many other luminaries, will discuss topics of common interest like old friends – changed days indeed.
Diplomatic relations were formally established in 1979 and over the last 30 years both countries have developed an important partnership.
With the some of the Chinese delegates yet to be confirmed, the event is the fourth since 2003, when the first conference was held in Washington.
The organisers say the meetings aim to develop contacts on an academic and business level. Economic recovery, science and technology, energy engineering and agricultural development are among the topics to be discussed.
Sponsored at the Platinum, Gold and Silver Levels by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Cisco Systems, China National Oil Corporation, the Dow Chemical Company and Hanban/ Confucius Institute, the conference will be the first since last year’s presidential elections in the United States.
“In the most important areas like security, energy and the environment, China and the United States are seeking a common goal,” says Professor Niu.

Obama visit
President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao met in April during the G20 Summit, and Obama will visit Beijing in mid-November.
The space for dialogue between the two has been growing. “Working together to meet the global challenges”, a motto for the opening in October, is expected to pave the good will for the future.
Obama and Hu still have at least two more years at the helms of their respective countries.

by Maria João Belchior in Beijing

Growing up with a giant

A small but significant group of Macanese have been in the privileged position to have watched the foundation and development of the People’s Republic of China. We asked some of them what the future holds as the country enters its seventh decade

Views on the 60 years of China’s evolution among the Macanese are, as you might expect, diverse, but there is a level of underlying agreement.
Some focus on the horrors of the Cultural Revolution and lack of human rights, while others prefer to gloss over the negatives and talk about the country’s spectacular economic development over the last thirty years.
Macau people of a certain age – 50 to 70 – born here when the city was under Portuguese administration, have witnessed, albeit from a distance, the foundation and evolution of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and can take a long view.
Initial fears over what might happen after China’s resumption of sovereignty over Macau in 1999, were replaced by a realisation that the “one country, two systems” model needed to be followed, and that people’s interests were safeguarded under the Basic Law.
But niggling issues still remain for some, like that of nationality.
At the time of the handover, former legislator, Jorge Fão, was suspicious about whether “one country, two systems” would work, but as time passed he realised it could function.
President of the Institute of European Studies, José Sales Marques, agrees: “It is a great constitutional solution that took a lot of pragmatism and open minds to be established, and it is developing in an internationally accepted way,’’ he says.
Fred Palmer, from the theatre group Doçi Papiaçam, believes that since the handover, political participation has actually been enhanced.

Inherent component
Sales Marques believes most of the changes since the handover have been positive and have not harmed the status of the Macanese.
“We are an inherent part of Macau, we are very well respected by the Macau Government and have a strong sense of belonging. The Central Government is also very supportive,’’ he says.
The leader of APOMAC (the Retired and Pensioner’s Association), Francisco Manhão, also believes conditions have been good for the Macanese since the handover.
But tellingly, Pedro Lino – a fictional name for possibly obvious reasons – is more critical. Even though he believes the “one country, two systems” was the best possible solution, the 71 year-old trader is fierce in his criticism over the nationality issue.
He believes it is unfair that people have to choose one or another nationality when they are connected to both worlds.

A powerful nation
Former lawmaker Jorge Fão believes the founding of the PRC was a “huge geo-political blow’’ for western countries. However, with the evolution of Chinese society and the fall of the “orthodox communist regime” over the last 20 to 30 years, the country is no longer seen as a menace to capitalist countries.
Having watched most of the building up of a modern and powerful China, 55 year-old Sales Marques, focuses on the positives.
“From a social point of view – poverty alleviation, women’s liberation and the overall improvement in living conditions. On the economy, one must admire the reconstruction of the Chinese economy in a relatively short time after one century of foreign intervention,’’ he says, adding the “extraordinary” achievement of changing from a revolutionary to a reformist model over the course of 30 years.
Manhão and Lino also believe China’s economic development is of huge international significance, assuring Beijing of a powerful position in geo-political terms – its hosting of the Olympic Games was a potent symbol of this power.

Suffering and crisis
China’s history is also one of suffering and crisis: “The revolutionary period took too many lives and brought destruction at institutional, cultural and productive levels,’’ says Marques.
If the openness that followed is a positive factor, it also resulted in unequal distribution of wealth and
social justice, regional discrepancies, and environmental destruction, Marques adds.
Fão, who was two years old when the PRC was founded, says the Cultural Revolution was the most significant event in the country’s history, due to the contradictory “suffering it brought for the Chinese people and the economic opening-up it foreshadowed’’ under Paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.
Palmer agrees: “We have seen the positive effect of this in Macau in terms of the economic changes that have occurred here,’’ he says.
For Lino, the negatives outweigh the positives, with the Cultural Revolution overshadowing all else.

The future
Marques says that given human rights are not a priority, it is vital that China moves towards having a “sustainable economy, and being a great cultural, scientific, intellectual, central and benign political power”.
Fão takes the same line, hoping to see a political opening-up: “I do admit it is not easy, given the extension of the territory and the population,’’ he says, explaining that integrating 56 different ethnic groups is no easy task.
Also, given that the country was “closed” for so many years, the population “might not be ready to choose their leaders”.
“I would also like to see China’s continued economic progress to bring bigger social advantages and, later, bring advances in democratic opening up,’’ he says.
Manhão adds: “I would like China to be more transparent and democratic and see everyone benefit from good living conditions, particularly those that live in the countryside’’.

Macau, ruled by its people
In terms of Macau’s development, all the people we spoke to emphasise continuity.
Palmer hopes China continues with its current policies towards Macau which protects its autonomy within the political and economic framework of the nation. Fão agrees and Manhão and Lino simply want to see “Macau being ruled by its people”.
Marques focuses on other aspects: “It is our hope that when the time comes and the people of Macau, under the framework of the Basic Law, express a majority opinion on the path to political reform, that the Central Government will give full support to those ideas,’’ he says.
Does this mean they all support more autonomy for Macau? Marques sees it is a puzzling question. He believes the relationship is healthy regardless of the fact that, in times of crisis, the MSAR still asks for Beijing’s help.
“There is a lot more that the people of Macau can do to improve the city within the limits of its autonomy, namely in the quality of education, health services, housing, the judicial system, the Legislative Assembly and public administration,” he says.
Fão, on the other hand, believes more autonomy does not necessarily mean more stability, agreeing with Palmer, Lino and Manhão, that the maintenance of the existing relationship is vital.

by Luciana Leitão

Capitalism with Chinese characteristics

For most of the time since the People’s Republic of China was founded 60 years ago, the Middle Kingdom has been a puzzle. But at least it fitted easily into an ideological box. Today, it perplexes and confounds the world with its apparently contradictory communist-capitalist model, so what of the future?
The world looked on in amazement when, in the mid-1980s, China proposed a Joint Declaration with Great Britain which was valid for 50 years. As usual, the Chinese were thinking ahead.
But, not even the Chinese of 50 years ago could imagine their nation today.
What was until very recently a Third World economy, is now preparing, according to various predictions, to challenge and perhaps overtake the United States.
It is already deemed to be the motor of the world’s economy, surviving the present crisis in a very different manner from the rest of the industrialised world.
While the European Union and the United States evaluate negative fluctuations in their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or increases of no more than two percent, the worst-case scenario for China is five percent growth.
If the US is China’s largest investor, then China is the largest investor in north-America’s public debt through the massive acquisition of treasury bonds, which are subsidising Washington’s public expenditure.
Today, China is the second biggest global exporter (as per WTO 2007 data) and the third biggest importer. It can’t be ignored.

Party power
This economic impact has pushed political and ideological questions into the background. China has managed to effectively silence the democratic and human rights lobby in exchange for imports and exports.
But nevertheless, politically, China now isn’t that different from the one Deng Xiaoping inherited and bequeathed.
One party controls the whole political system, through village committees, and – at just as importantly – the judicial system.
Freedom of expression is ferociously controlled wherever it contests the established political power, even the internet has been unable to stop the party snuffing out potential opposition such as the un-official church and the Falun Gong.
The big revolution happened at a commercial and economical level (a lot less at the financial level). But investing in China is still an odyssey, whether due to cultural, bureaucratic or legal problems.
In China, for instance, it’s impossible for foreign investors to buy land. The land belongs to the state, which leases it. Also, it’s impossible to make deals without that peculiar for outsiders networking system of Guanxi.

Powder keg?
Many say China’s immense and rapid economic change has created a social powder keg, but the years go by without significant problems arising.
Chinese people seem to accept the need for a strong state, mixing three components of what, in the eyes of the west, appears to be resignation: a culture highly inspired by Confucius rhetoric, which places the authority of the ‘father’ first; a level of gratitude – learned at school – for the 70 years of communist history; and the increasing well-being of citizens, especially in the cities.
Many analysts predicted that as soon as they had their bellies full, the minds of Chinese people would turn to democracy, but today this seems a quaint notion.
It is entirely possible that China’s political system will evolve so slowly that most won’t even notice it.
So, are we saying that 70 years from now, China will still have a communist named party leading the political and judicial system, as well as its armed forces?
Such a situation would surely be incompatible with a progressive economic and commercial opening, people might say. But they also said that 10 or 20 years ago.

No predicting China
When it comes to China, it’s better not to make predictions, and making it even more risky at this time are growing criticisms of the western political-economic model by China’s media, blaming it for the present economic and financial crisis.
As the New York Times recently reported, when 70 percent of the furniture sold in the USA is made in China, it’s not surprising that a deceleration in the sale of new houses in the USA caused more “victims” in China: 20 million unemployed against the States’ three million. These are but more arguments against talk of Chinese democracy.
China intrigues the world, but far less than in the recent past. Now, the world wants to sell raw materials to China and buy the cheaper ‘gadgets’ that it manufactures.
Some, of a more ideologically mindset, resist the apparent charms of a communist-capitalist marriage, most of them western economic analysts.
David Smick’s book, “The World is Curved”, just released in the US, focuses on doubts over China. A best-seller since its
release, it cautions that China has based its GDP on exports (42 percent of the GDP is exported), chiefly for North American consumers. According to Smick, China is the next “bubble”.
The author also explains that he doesn’t trust the macro-economical numbers divulged by China (there aren’t any independent entities that might present alternatives or confirmation of what the government says).
One piece of data the Chinese authorities announced is that during the first six months of 2009, they loaned the equivalent of 50 percent of their GDP; Smick doesn’t believe it. But, he says, if it is true, we should fear even more for the future.
Today’s Chinese leaders obviously make a very positive assessment of the past 60 years. After all, they would say, they have managed to do what for the vast majority would be impossible, by balancing a strong Communist Party with a rapidly growing capitalist economy.

Taiwan to tumble?
With the Macau and Hong Kong situation resolved, only one little pebble remains in the shoe: Taiwan. The past 60 years haven’t been enough for China to reclaim the rebel island.
Several attempts have been made, mainly at the level of political speeches, but it seems clear that while the US maintains such close ties with Taiwan, nothing will be resolved.
Will Taiwan continue as a rebel island 70 years from now? Probably not, but the “return” will be done according to the will of the Taiwanese themselves and not under Chinese threats – which are actually counter-productive.
What of Tibet? The Chinese leaders are waiting for the death of the Dalai Lama, certain that his successor won’t have the same international projection or influence at home. Anyway, growing more Han-like by the minute, Tibet will soon stop being a problem.

by João Paulo Meneses in Lisbon

Ethnic melting pot

Why the number ‘56’ is at the heart of China’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
After the number 8, which is pronounced the same way as ‘wealth’ in Chinese, China seems to have found another magic number, ‘56’.
This is the total number of ethnic groups in the country and in order to “reinforce ethnic harmony”, they will all be represented in the military
parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, on
October 1 2009.
According to the director of the parade and commander of the Beijing military region, Fang Fenghui, the 56 regiments “symbolize the country’s 56 ethnic groups marching together in the name of socialism with Chinese characteristics”.
Tiananmen Square, the main venue for the celebrations at the heart of the city, has been decorated with 56 red and gold columns.

Ethnic harmony
The “reinforcement of ethnic harmony” is in response to the violent riots that have plagued two of China’s autonomous regions which are home to separatist movements: Tibet and Xinjiang.
In Xinjiang, where 42 percent of the population is of Uighur ethnicity (a Muslim group with a Turkish cultural background), almost 200 people died last July, in what is considered to have been the worst riots since the foundation of the PRC, in October 1949.
China’s leadership sees the “Uighur terrorists” and the “Tibetan separatists” as the main threats to national security.
The country has three other autonomous regions – Guangxi, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia – all of which have a Han majority, the country’s largest ethnic group, representing 91.6 percent of the total population.
Together, the five autonomous regions represent 46 percent of the country’s territory and, with the exception of Ningxia, are located in sensitive border regions in the south, north and northwest.

Strategic importance
Xinjiang is especially important because of its location in the heart of Central Asia, bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Mongolia.
In terms of demographics, its ethnic inhabitants represent less than 10 percent of the total population. The most populated region, Guangxi, has “only” 48 million people – less than half that of Guangdong or Shandong province, on China’s coast. Still, the ethnic minorities are not subjected to the radical “one couple, one child” policy, that has been imposed on all Han since the end of the 1970’s.
In the last half century, the ethnic minority percentage has risen from six to nine percent of the total population.

Ethnic breakdown
According to the last census, 18 ethnic minorities total more than one million people and the largest, the Zhuang, concentrated in the Guangxi Autonomous Region, surpasses 16 million.
With nearly 11 million, the Manchu are next, followed by the Hui (ten million), Miao (nine million) and the Uighur (eight and a half million). The Mongols (six million) and the Tibetans (five and a half million) are placed eighth and ninth respectively.
The three thousand Lhoba, living in Southern Tibet, are the smallest minority.
China positions itself as a “multi-ethnic nation” and, according to article 4 of its Constitution, “any discrimination or oppression against any ethnic minority is forbidden, as well as any act that undermines the unity between ethnic groups or that instigates division”.

by António Caeiro

Standing proud

In the past 60 years the Chinese nation has made tremendous strides, as has Macau since it’s return to Chinese sovereignty. Macau Business seeks the views of some observers on this extraordinary period of change.
Ieong Wan Chong, the director of the “One Country, Two Systems” Research Center of the Macau Polytechnic Institute, lived in China for more than 40 years before moving to Macau 30 years ago.
He believes an ancient country was given new impetus by the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
Ieong says in the initial stages the PRC developed soundly, but took a wrong path for some years afterwards before , in 1978, the leadership implemented reform and opening, leading to huge development and growing importance on the international stage.
In 2008, China became the world’s third-largest economy, after the US and Japan, and China is faring best of all despite the financial crisis. Ieong believes China will become the second-largest economy in the world, as at present it has the second-largest total external trade and largest foreign currency reserves.
With a population of nearly 20 million yet to shake off poverty, significant problems persist. China should always be prepared for danger in times of peace and constantly improve itself.

Stable foundations
The “One Country, Two Systems” policy has laid a very stable foundation for Macau’s development, he says. With support from the central government, Macau, as long as it fully carries out the Basic Law and is positive, can prosper.
“Without the motherland growing stronger day by day, Macau’s smooth transition and handover to China would have been impossible. Macau’s progress is synonymous with that of the Motherland”, says Ieong “Furthermore, in certain areas, Macau can do better than China. After all, we are a small region with a higher (economic) threshold, so we should aim for a higher target,” Ieong concludes.

Super-proud
Angela Leong – legislator and the fourth wife of gaming tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun – thinks it has been a remarkable 60 years.
“In 60 years, especially since the reform and opening up, China has developed by leaps and bounds in its economy, its comprehensive national power has been strengthened and international standing improved, and all kinds of social undertakings have flourished and prospered.
“All Macau compatriots feel super-proud of the motherland’s growth and progress,” she says.
Born and educated in the mainland, Leong moved to Macau in 1982. She is now a director of SJM and STDM. She says China’s rapid economic development has brought Macau boundless business opportunities, strengthening its trade and personnel exchanges with the mainland. Currently Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau have forged a highly strategic regional cooperation system, promoting the economic development of Macau, Guangdong, and southern China.
“As Macau is a tiny city with a small population and is a micro economy, it has taken on as its mainstay, the tourism and gaming industries – ones that heavily depend on external environs. In the 10 years since the handover, the mainland has continuously launched policies to promote the rapid development of Macau’s tourism and gaming sectors. Take for example, the ‘indivisual visa’ scheme launched in 2003,” she says.

Diversified future
Leong says Macau must pursue diversified development and this also relies on support from China.
“Macau should fully draw support from the neighbouring regions and make use of their unique advantages to gain cohesion and develop itself. Only that way can Macau overcome various difficulties during the development, achieving double-win and multiple-wins,” she says.
Co-operation with Guangdong should focus on:
** Bringing into full play Macau’s function as a business and trade services platform for western Guangdong.
** Reinforcing Macau-Guangdong regional integration to boost transportation facilities improving passenger and cargo flows.
** Construction of customs ports to enhamce people flows.
** Pushing ahead with the Hengqin development zone to create new development space.
She says both Hengqin and Wanzai ports can become experimental ports for combining the two cities’ immigration and customs facilities into one.
“Apart from backing from the motherland, Macau should also have the strategic conciousness and insight to open up to the world. For instance, Macau is the platform between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries,” she says.

Even closer
Lawmaker Chan Meng Kam says the smooth election of the 4th term Macau Legislative Assembly will inject a new atmosphere into Macau society.
He says the relationship between Macau and the mainland will become ever more closer and the city will inevitably integrate itself into the PRD while developing into a “world tourism and leisure city”.
Chan spent his childhood in the mainland before settling down in Macau.
“China has carried out reform and opening up for 30 years. It has made great achievements. In the past 10 years since the handover, guided by the principle of “One Country, Two Systems”, Macau has realised a high level of autonomy, turning a new page of history,” he says.
“I believe, as a Chinese, we should be proud of our motherland’s achievements; as a Macau resident, I am very grateful. I hope that we continue to pool our efforts together, to contribute to China’s prosperity and development towards a powerful country, as well as to Macau’s stable development.”
But it cannot be all one-way traffic, Macau must help itself, he says. It must develop other supplementary industries, like MICE, entertainment and cultural industries, to name a few.

Creative industries
The government should think about how it can attract foreign investors and boost emerging industries – in particular the creative industries. The new-term SAR government should seriously create workable conditions to foster them, says Chan.
Macau must also find its own ways to battle the global financial crisis and not rely solely on China’s help.

China cornerstone
CEO of Seng San Enterprises Ltd, Leong Vai Tac is also a member of the Macau Executive Council and the president of Development Strategy Research Centre of Macau. He believes the nation is heading to a prosperous and secure future.
“As Chinese living in Macau, we should raise our heads proudly because of two things. First, at the point of its 60th anniversary, the new China is playing very important roles on the international stage both in aspects of politics and the economy. Secondly, China is recognised by the international community for its ability to tackle natural and man-made disasters,” he says.
Leong says in the 10 years since the handover, Macau has become the world’s number one gaming destination. This would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
All this has been possible because of principles and policies, he says.
“One country, two systems”, “Macau people ruling Macau” and a high level of autonomy and gaming liberisation have been the keys,” says Leong.

Enormous market
China’s enormous market has also been vital to Macau’s tourism and gaming sector, he adds. But the city must diversify.
He takes his own business as an example: Seng San was once a large-scale garment enterprise, with an annual export turnover of MOP300 million.
But changing market conditions, and then the financial crisis, slashed business volume to MOP80 million. Nonetheless he didn’t lose heart. Instead, he saw a new business opportunity emerge in Macau’s economic takeoff. He invested MOP200 million in opening Macau’s largest laundry factory in 2004, serving the newest and biggest hotels.

New world
“The new world originates from the tourism and gaming sectors. We can’t blame the shrinking of the manufacturing industry on the gaming sector. On the contrary, those who grasp the opportunities from the development of the tourism and gaming industries, and Macau’s orientation to be a world tourism and leisure centre, will win,” he adds.
“Today, we’ve turned the country’s strengths to our own benefit: the more powerful China is, the more people traveling to Macau and the more businesses for us.”
“60 years ago the Chinese people stood up! Yet in order to straigthen our backs, we must inherit the Confucian philosophy. China should not make other countries feel fearful or threatened. The same applies to Macau, we should forge close cooperation with Hong Kong and Zhuhai and other neighboring regions in order to achieve development.”

by Yuci Tai