So the Macanese see China not as the destroyer of hard-won freedoms but as a guarantor of public safety which will eventually turn the money tap back on.
The irony of a once notoriously puritanical communist regime restoring safety to a society that survives on gambling and its associated vices is lost in Macau. What is of more concern is how long the money tap provided by the gambling industry might continue. As the high end of the market steered clear of Macau's gang wars, its place was taken by downmarket tourists from China after a flutter -- a more numerous but far less moneyed clientele.
Stanley Ho's monopoly on casino operations runs out in 2001 and there has been a lot of talk of opening up the market. Ho is naturally against greater competition but his argument has more than self-interest. Greater competition means greater incentives to attract punters which means pushing the enclave further downmarket.
How far in that direction does it want to go? How long will it be before what remains of its image of cultured colonial somnambulism gives way to a less desirable if more realistic image of a factory for parting mainland Chinese visitors from their money?
It has been said that Macau is not one colony but three. There is the colony of the Portuguese administrators, that of the Hong Kong gamblers and those who prey on them, and finally a Chinese colony of recent immigrants who now make up over 50 percent of the population.
The first is responsible for Macau's distinctive cultural legacy, but its influence ends tonight.
The second is responsible for Macau's financial well-being but its attentions are fickle and its pockets lightened by the Asian financial crisis.
As for the third group, they are furthest away from what Macau has been, but they are almost certainly its future.
Laurence Eyton is the deputy managing editor of the Taipei Times. He is currently on assignment in Macau.
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