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Macau has been dubbed the ‘good student’ or ‘poster child’ of the One Country Two Systems policy, compared to the neighbouring SAR. Experts hold different views on this assertion’s meaning and outcome
Macau Business | June 2023 | Special Report | Macau – Hong Kong | So near, so far
On September 11, 2019, when then Macau Chief Executive-designate Ho Iat Seng went to Beijing to receive his appointment letter from the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, President Xi Jinping praised Macau for successfully implementing “One Country, Two Systems.”
Xi added that Macau shows the feasibility of “One Country, Two Systems,” which is characterised by the existence of patriotism, the improvement of people’s livelihood, the persistence of economic prosperity, and the phenomenon of social stability.
The President’s speech two months later, on December 20, 2019, at the event celebrating the SAR’s 20th anniversary and the inauguration of the new Government led by Ho Iat Seng, summed up this view as “Macau’s important experience in practicing the principle.”
“Our fellow compatriots in Macau have a tradition of loving the motherland and a strong sense of national identity and pride. This is the most important reason behind the success of ‘One Country Two Systems practice in Macau,” Xi Jinping emphasized.
By implication, President Xi saw the Macau model of “One Country, Two Systems” as a showcase to the world and to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region at the time, according to analysts.
“Ideologically, Beijing finds the Macau version of ‘one country, two systems’ increasingly a model for Hong Kong to learn and emulate,” wrote Sonny Lo, in his book “Casino Capitalism, Society and Politics in China’s Macao” (2020).
From that date in September 2019, the international press began calling Macau ‘the good student’, as opposed to HK. “Macau and Hong Kong, the good student and the rebel,” wrote the Portuguese news agency. “Macau: lessons for Hong Kong from Beijing’s ‘good student’,” was the title of a piece in the Financial Times three months later.
It is known that a lot has happened since 2019, in Macau and Hong Kong, so Macau Business questioned Sonny Lo about the subject in the interview that we publish in this special report’s pages.
“Our fellow compatriots in Macau have a tradition of loving the motherland and a strong sense of national identity ad pride. This is the most important reason behind the success of ‘One Country Two Systems practice in Macau,” Xi Jinping, December 19, 2019
The HK-based researcher develops at length, but we can already highlight these ideas: “Macau is indeed a good student of China, politically, economically and socio-culturally, without any choice,” or “overall, Macau has to be a good student of China because its motherland provides guidance, leadership, expertise, physical space, assistance and most importantly water and electricity as well as food supply.”
And what is the award that Macau received for being the good student? Sonny Lo has no doubts: “The prize is to get mainland’s whatever assistance it wants in time of crisis, in time of requiring substantial help when it encounters difficulties in achieving “suitable economic diversification,” and in time of requiring more mainland tourists after the three years of Covid pandemic that plagued the casino industry.”
“The prize is to get mainland’s whatever assistance it wants in time of crisis, in time of requiring substantial help when it encounters difficulties in achieving “suitable economic diversification” – Sonny Lo
Other experts, however, hold a different perspective.
Professor Meng U Ieong, Department of Government and Public Administration, University of Macau, understands the idea of “Macau being the ‘good student’ if compared with Hong Kong is based on the performance in maintaining national security. After the national security law set up in Hong Kong, Hong Kong indeed becomes more and more like Macau in realms like freedom of speech and executive-legislature relationship.”
“The idea [of a good student] doesn’t have much sense now and Macau indeed don’t really receive substantial prize for its performance” – Meng U Ieong
So – Professor Ieong adds -” I think the idea doesn’t have much sense now, and Macau indeed doesn’t really receive a substantial prize for its performance. For example, in the case of gambling license renewal, the VIP room was almost completely executed, and it counts for nearly 45 per cent revenue of the gambling industry, or tens of billions in government revenue. It suggested that “in the name of national interests/security, the interests of Macau are subordinated.”
“For me Macau was never the poster boy for the OCTS formula and has failed to come up with an innovative and visionary perspective in this regard” – Eric Sautede
Macau Business also questioned Éric Sautedé, Associate Researcher of the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China, on this matter: “I have always indicated that this idea of the ‘good student’ was very relative and somewhat misleading: the ‘one country, two systems’ (OCTS) formula was novel, and it was thus up to each SAR to interpret it. So, the idea was not ‘to follow’ blindly the central authorities’ wishes but to exert a ‘high level of autonomy’ that would be meaningful. In that respect, both SARs have failed, and clearly, the OCTS formula, one of supposedly shared sovereignty, is not appealing at all, especially to the one it was supposed to attract – Taiwan.”
Sautedé, who was a professor at the University of Saint Joseph in Macau, from where he was removed, considers that “On the side of politics, Macau is a place where nepotism and small-circle politics reign supreme, without an ounce of opening” and that “on the side of the economy, all governments in Macau have failed in their drive to diversify the economy.”
So- the political scientist concludes – for me Macau was never the poster boy for the OCTS formula and has failed to come up with an innovative and visionary perspective in this regard. What has happened in Hong Kong – the fact that the central authorities had to intervene to restore what they perceived as a threat to the country’s security, mainly because local authorities had failed to respond to the demands of the public – can only make matter worse for Macau.”
“If not for Hong Kong, Macau would have never benefitted from an OCTS formula in the first place, so there is actually no prize for believing that Macau could be a good student – more accommodationist – only further demands and further constraints,” the researcher said.
Pro-establishment coalitions: One formula, different trajectories
“Under the principles of OCTS, the HKSAR and MSAR are nominally governed by residents, without interference by the central government. However, to exert control and maintain stability, the Chinese government has formulated coalitions in the two SARs, co-opting business elites by granting them political privileges in exchange for their allegiance,” wrote in 2019, with research in 2018, two researchers based in Hong Kong, Mathew Y. H. Wong (Education University of Hong Kong) and Ying-ho Kwong (City University of Hong Kong).
According to them, “despite the identical formula, the substance of co-optation is not the same in the two SARs. The coalition in Hong Kong has failed to adapt to social changes, resulting in its disconnection from society, and subsequently a series of governance crises. However, the support of business elites in Macau is still crucial to overall support for the MSAR government and social stability.”
In short, “this identical formula has resulted in very different trajectories, as the coalition in Hong Kong has failed to serve as an effective intermediary between the state and society amidst a series of governing crises, whereas the one in Macau has been largely successful in maintaining political stability,” reads the paper One formula, different trajectories: China’s coalition-building and elite dynamics in Hong Kong and Macau.
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