Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday visited a drizzly Macau for the 15th anniversary of the gambling hub’s return to Chinese rule, with onlookers barred from using umbrellas — the emble m of democracy protests in Hong Kong.
The two-day visit comes just days after Hong Kong police cleared the last of three camps where protesters had spent nearly three months demanding free leadership elections for the territory.
Xi’s visit is an opportunity to drive home the message that Macau needs to diversify away from casinos, which have seen revenues dive owing to a national anti-corruption drive and a stuttering economy.
Photo: Reuters
However, in the spirit of Hong Kong’s Occupy movement which gripped the territory from late September, hundreds of pro-democracy protesters are planning a march today from Macau’s historic city center.
Authorities were on guard yesterday for signs of dissent, with reporters on the airport tarmac waiting for Xi not allowed to hold umbrellas, and handed raincoats instead.
“They said you couldn’t open umbrellas at the airport because it would affect the flights,” a Hong Kong-based reporter who was one of about 40 journalists at the scene said.
Another reporter said airport authorities had explained it was too windy to safely unfurl an umbrella — a symbol of the Hong Kong democracy movement after protesters used them to shield themselves from police pepper spray.
Despite the light rain, no one in the official receiving party used one either.
However, dozens of enthusiastic elementary school pupils braved the cold weather to wave Chinese and Macau flags, and posies of flowers, to greet Xi.
“I believe that under the ‘one country, two systems’ and the Basic Law, Macau definitely will be increasingly stable and better as time passes,” Xi told reporters after stepping off the plane.
Several Hong Kong activists, including veteran lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄), were reportedly turned back at Macau’s ferry terminal as they held up yellow umbrellas and a large yellow banner which read: “I want real universal suffrage, have you received the message, Xi Jinping?”
Macau is the only part of China where casino gambling is legal, and after the sector was opened up to foreign competition in 2002 it became a paradise for high rollers, overtaking Las Vegas as the world’s gaming capital in terms of revenue.
However, casinos saw their worst monthly drop in business ever in October, plunging 23 percent to 28.025 billion Macau patacas (US$3.51 billion) compared to the same month last year, as China’s big spenders are hit by the graft crackdown, as well as a slumping Chinese economy.
Earlier this month, Macau Basic Law Committee chairman Li Fei (李飛) warned the territory to reconsider its dependence on gambling in the interests of the nation.
Xi’s message would be that the territory must not rely on casinos “which have become safe havens for corrupt mainland officials,” Hong Kong Institute of Education professor Sonny Lo (盧兆興) said.
Beijing is already clamping down on illicit funds channeled from China through Macau’s casinos, according to reports.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security is to be given access to all transfers through the state-backed China UnionPay bank payment card to identify suspicious transactions, the South China Morning Post reported this week, citing unnamed sources.
Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui (崔世安) — who, like Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英), is chosen by a pro-Beijing committee — is scheduled to be officially inaugurated by Xi at a ceremony today after being selected for a second term in August.
One Macau pro-democracy leader told reporters that he had been tailed by unidentified men ahead of the visit. Senior Beijing officials have recently praised Macau as a shining example of “one country, two systems,” in comments seen as a veiled warning against Hong Kong-style civil disobedience.
Xi’s visit would “send a message indirectly to Hong Kong that the Macau model of political development is to be followed,” Lo said.
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