China is making a bid to complete national security legislation and cement “governance by patriots” in Macau, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in an annual report on the Chinese territory.
The council has compiled the reports since the former Portuguese territory’s handover to China in 1999.
The Macau government over the past year pushed for the passage of amendments to its national security law without significant opposition from the territory’s civil society, although voices of dissent were heard, the report said.
Photo: REUTERS
The amendments to the national security law led to concern over the human rights situation in Macau from the EU and the US, which added the territory to the human trafficking blacklist, it said.
Beijing has sought to deepen economic ties with Macau and integrate the territory into the framework of Chinese trade laws, it said.
Citing an executive report by Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng (賀一誠), the report said the Macau government’s goals this year are to change election laws, and enhance the patriotism and national security education of public officials, which would include instating a loyalty oath.
Taiwan-Macau exchanges have cooled due to cross-strait tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
About 55,000 Taiwanese visited Macau from January to October last year, down 5.6 percent from the same period in 2021, while 1,000 Macanese visited Taiwan in the same period last year, nearly unchanged from a year earlier, the report said.
Macanese exchange students in Taiwan declined from 722 people in 2021 to 522 last year, it said.
Trade relations between Taiwan and Macau showed signs of easing from the height of the pandemic, it said.
Taiwan-Macau trade was valued at US$108 million from January to November last year, an increase of 3.8 percent from the previous year, but the Macau government twice rejected Taiwanese mango imports due to COVID-19 restrictions last year.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Defense experts have warned that the ‘Shandong,’ China’s second largest aircraft carrier, poses a serious threat to eastern Taiwan’s defenses The drills conducted by the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong in the Western Pacific last week were more aimed at showcasing China’s military capabilities to the US rather than toward Taiwan, a Taiwanese defense expert said yesterday. Lin Yin-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said the drills which involved dozens of warplanes sought to test China’s anti-access and area denial capabilities should the US and its allies attempt to interfere in a cross-strait conflict. Lin said that the latest Chinese drills coincided with a joint maritime exercise conducted by the US, South Korea
Thousands of bottles of Sriracha have been returned or destroyed after the discovery of excessive sulfur dioxide, a bleaching agent, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday. About 12,600 bottles totaling 9,991.8kg of the hot sauce imported from the US by Emporium Corp (河洛企業) were flagged at the border for containing illegal levels of sulfur dioxide, the FDA said in its regular border inspection announcement. Inspectors discovered 0.5g per kilogram of the common bleaching agent and preservative, higher than the 0.03g permitted, it said. As it is the first time within six months the product has been flagged, Sriracha products from
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
CHANGES: While NCCU opened the nation’s first co-ed dorm in Mucha, a recent survey showed that Taiwanese are in favor of abolishing gender segregation at high schools National Chengchi University (NCCU) has opened a co-ed dormitory, a first in Taiwan among state-funded Taiwan universities. The 22 duplexes are at the renovated “Huanan New Village,” in Taipei City’s Mucha (木柵) area, near the NCCU campus, a school official said yesterday. Twenty-two out of 37 group applications were selected in a lottery draw to select who would be chosen to live in the units, which can either be shared by up to eight students if the unit has four bedrooms, or up to 10 students if it is a five-bedroom unit, officials said. Completed in 1964 for campus staff housing,