From the Malaysian Insider:
Macau marks the 10th anniversary of its return to China today with plenty to show for its gambling industry, but it is also beset with worries over its undiversified economy, corruption and crime.
As Chinese President Hu Jintao flew in yesterday to celebrate the anniversary, the southern Chinese enclave downplayed its angst and highlighted its achievements and hopes… In a speech early this month to mark the anniversary, China’s top legislator Wu Bangguo said there was a need to “resolve the deep-lying contradictions and problems that have an adverse impact on Macau’s economic and social development”… But lawmakers like Coutinho say that is not enough: “People are frustrated because the gap between the rich and the poor expands. Life is expensive because many things — electricity, water, telecommunications, raw materials — are monopolies run by Chinese companies.
Gangland violence, which faded after the handover, has become rampant again, just like before the 1999 handover and following the recession.
From the Winnipeg Free Press:
The tiny territory, best known as a dingy casino town in the past half-century of its 400-year history as a Portuguese colony, returned to Chinese rule on Dec. 20, 1999, as its economy was shriveling and warring Chinese gangs were frightening away tourists.
Since then, violence has subsided and the economy has exploded. The one place in China where gambling is legal, Macau boomed after the government broke up a local company’s long-standing monopoly seven years ago and started welcoming U.S. gambling powerhouses like Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands and MGM Mirage.
As the operators built one flashy casino-resort after another, gamblers showed up by the millions – the overwhelming majority of them from mainland China – and profits surged. By 2006, this enclave less than one-sixth the size of Washington, D.C., had surpassed the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s most prosperous casino centre. Chinese communist rule had turned Macau into a gambling Mecca…But the casinos, thanks largely to the strength of mainland China’s stimulus-primed economy, are teeming once again. In October, Macau posted its best month ever, raking in $1.59 billion in gambling revenues. That was about double Nevada’s $800.3 million take during the period, according to government figures.
The China Daily reports that Hu Jintao’s wife has accompanied him to Macau:
Liu Yongqing, wife of Chinese President Hu Jintao, said charity exchanges and cooperation could be cemented between Macao and China’s inland area during a visit to a Macao nursery Saturday afternoon.
China’s inland area could learn from Macao’s successful experience in the development of charity and public welfare cause, she said.
In honour of the return, the SAR government held a competition to find the best songs to celebrate the occassion. One of the three winners was “A Wonderful Place,” written by Leo Lei and involving nine Macau singers. From CCTV9:
“Song of Macau” and “Prosperous Lotus” were the other two winners.
In related news, however, a group of pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong were denied entry to Macau:
A group of Hong Kong democracy activists were barred from entering Macau on Saturday ahead of the city’s 10th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule.
The 14 campaigners planned to petition Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is in Macau to attend a series of celebration events, to demand universal suffrage for Hong Kong.
“We were taken away to several rooms when we arrived at customs,” Leung Kwok-hung, a Hong Kong lawmaker and member of the pro-democracy League of Social Democrats, told AFP.
