How and why do attitudes to the Chinese Communist Party differ in the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau?
Hong Kong and Macau have similar but different political backgrounds, this has influenced how the two special administrative regions interact with the central government of the People’s Republic of China. These differences how their populations perceive the attempts of Beijing to have its sovereignty and interests fulfilled. Macau has often been praised by state-run media such as Global Times for its integration with the PRC and noted for lacking widespread dissidence, whilst the territory of Hong Kong has seen large protests against the mainland. This is perhaps best evidenced in the umbrella movement when tens of thousands of Hong Kongers called for universal suffrage in the election of Hong Kong’s leaders.
Indeed, the introduction of Article 23, a law against any subversion of the central government was blocked in Hong Kong after widespread protests attracting half a million people in opposition but there was no notable opposition in Macau.
To explore the reasons for the difference in the situation in the two SARs, it is important to analyse the colonial history of the two. The Portuguese first visited Macau in 1513, by 1557, Portugal acquired a permanent settlement on Macau after traders began settling there. Macau grew its economy as a major stop on the silk road but grew into decline following the British acquisition of Hong Kong. Puga summed up the situation: “Macau’s trade and economy suffered as a result of foreign competition in Canton”. Whilst the early colonisation had given Portugal a head start, once Britain had arrived in the region, Hong Kong offered a strong viable alternative for trade of goods.
These developments resulted in Hong Kong’s economy overtaking Macau in the mid 19th Century and resulted in merchants from Portugal eventually leaving.
Portugal exploited the fallout from the Opium Wars to annex Taipa and Coloane as well as using the opportunity to stop paying rent. 1849 saw the Portuguese governor Amaral assassinated after he decreed Chinese residents had to pay ground rent and removed all Qing diplomats from Macau, a sign that the local population was not happy with colonial policy. In the 1970s, following the Carnation Revolution which overthrew the government of Salazar, Portugal began a voluntary period of decolonisation.
On the 20th December 1999, Macau returned from Portuguese rule. Since, it has become highly urbanised with several large casinos being built taking advantage of gambling being illegal in the mainland, attracting tourists from the mainland. These visitors account for 72% of tourists into Macau.
The fact that these Chinese citizens do not require a visa to visit Macau owing to the fact that they are part of the same one country, has thus been a major plus for the economy of the SAR. The casinos would not have had such a strong impact if Chinese citizens could not travel to frequent them with relative ease. Essentially, a Chinese controlled Macau supplies a demand that Chinese citizens have and this generates jobs and income for the Macau economy.
The prosperity of Macau has thus been amplified since the reassertion of Chinese sovereignty. This is shown by the fact that 15 years after the return, the average income per capita had increased by 160%, whilst unemployment had dropped by 5.1% to a very low 1.7%.
Hong Kong, meanwhile was acquired by the British in three separate incidents. In 1842, the First Opium War saw Hong Kong Island ceded in perpetuity. The Second Opium War saw Kowloon Peninsula ceded in 1860. A need to expand the colony and Chinese defeat in the Sino-Japanese War saw the New Territories being leased to Britain for 99 years in 1898.
When the New Territories lease was due to expire, the colony had been heavily integrated and it became impractical to separate the components. Food and water for the colony required the use of mainland China and the Territories. Thus having failed to agree on an extension to the lease, Britain returned Hong Kong to China on 1st July 1997.
Hong Kong’s economy also boomed under British rule with Victoria Harbour being one of the busiest harbours in the world, with Macau declining in economic strength due to the increased competition.
In the 1960s, however, both SARs saw massive protests and rioting by groups aligned with Beijing. In Hong Kong, the riots saw uncomfortable levels of violence that alienated the population that sympathized with the mainland and also led to social reforms under David Trench and Murray Maclehose, which transformed the lives of the people in Hong Kong and provided them with better utilities and infrastructure.
However, in 1966, Portuguese colonial control was critically weakened following the 12–3 incident when Macau police blocked the construction of a school by communist sympathisers and in the ensuing protest, hundreds were injured with some being shot dead, leading to a large scale riot by pro-Beijing loyalists.
The fallout from this disobedience and rioting was that Macau was placed under de facto PRC control, with pro-Beijing trade unions and groups holding real political power. This meant when sovereignty was transferred, Macau had been in practice under Chinese control for 30 years. The Chinese government had been seen as returning in response to a harsh and oppressive colonial regime in the 1960s, rather than using the threat of invasion and cutting off water to force a transfer as was the case in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong had relied on freshwater from Guangdong Province in China. An increase in the population following the Second World War had exhausted the city’s existing supplies, this gave China a firm upper hand in negotiations, they could always threaten to stop the supply of water to the city if they did not get exactly what they wanted. The Chinese even offered to give the water away for free, such was Premier Zhou Enlai’s understanding of how much control the supply of a basic necessity gave to China.
The loyalist Beijing faction in Macau was also then able to pass policy that ultimately made dissidence towards Beijing harder post 1999, it became illegal to display KMT and ROC banners, whilst refugees from the mainland who fled the Communist regime were sent back. This is a crucial departure from Hong Kong, whose population increased at a drastic rate after the Second World War, with several political refugees from the mainland.
When Hong Kong was returned it was full of people who had fled the Communists and naturally did not want to be ruled by them. Macau had no such individuals, as the policy under the control of Beijing loyalists was to return them to China.
Indeed, the influx of political refugees into Hong Kong played a massive role in building the identity of the city. The influx of cheap labour led to the manufacturing boom of the 1960s and 1970s.
These individuals built a separate Hong Kong identity also, they didn’t feel Chinese first due to their difficulties with the authorities on the mainland. This identity evolved separate to Chinese national identity. Indeed, Kingston wrote “the colonial state also sought to suppress the residents’ loyalty to China and thereby manipulate their identity”.
The British enacted policies that result in the loss of connection between these individuals and the Chinese state. The economy moved away from an entry point to China and became more globally looking, the Communist Party was also banned from operating in Hong Kong, which would have resulted in those ideas not being able to be transmitted amongst the Hong Kong population.
A more global looking economy also had the effect of allowing Hong Kong to be more likely to stand on its’ own two feet without the influence from China.
The terms of the handover also differed in both Special Administrative Regions, the Basic Law in Hong Kong promises eventual universal suffrage in elections for the Chief Executive it did not promise free elections in the case of Macau.
The colonial past offers reasons for this distinction, indeed Hao describes the current situation in Macau as “more democratic than in the colonial era”. The current situation sees the Chief Executive selected by a 300 member election committee, previously in Colonial Macau, the President of Portugal appointed the Governor. A Legislative Council formed in 1976, containing six members elected by direct suffrage, a further six elected by functional constituencies and five appointed by the Governor himself. As late as 1996, only a quarter of residents registered to vote and only two-thirds that did actually voted. The appointments by the Governor, himself chosen by the President of Portugal meant a lot of the decision making was taken away from the people of Macau and put in the hands of the colonial overlords.
Hong Kong had seen a move towards democracy in the last decades of colonial control. 1985 saw the first indirect elections to their Legislative Council, which in the years previous had members appointed. 1991 would see the first direct elections whilst in 1995, the LegCo was an entirely elected body for the first time.
This departure can go some way into explaining the conflicting views on democracies in the SARs. Even the limited democracy under Portugal was never taken upon by a majority of Macau, so it’s not something the society is used to and will expect, Hong Kong is a different story, the democratic elections were given during the last years of British rule, and the promise of them in Basic Law means that Hong Kongers had become used to democratic elections and they also have a legal obligation to hold the PRC too.
One can also look at the changing situation in the SARs since the late 1990s. Hong Kong has been perceived by many to have gotten weaker since 1997 with the encroachment of the mainland on its freedoms being cited by many as taking the shine away from Hong Kong, whilst the opposite is the case for Macau.
Macau’s growth since December 1999 is clear to see, Hong Kong has achieved strong levels of economic growth since 1997, however, these figures do not look as strong when compared to historical data, indeed the growth since handover is around half of the growth in the last 20 years of colonial rule.
Indeed, in 1997, Hong Kong made up 18.4% of China’s economy, by 2015 this had reduced to just 2.8%, with the port cities of Shanghai, Ningbo and Shenzhen all shipping more containers than Hong Kong.
The growth of Shenzhen over Hong Kong would be of particular concern. Both cities are part of the Pearl River Delta. This means Hong Kong is no longer the biggest economic might in its own area. Hong Kong’s ranking as the most competitive city in China has been lost to Shenzhen and Hong Kong has generally not been able to keep up with the economic growth of mainland cities.
Hong Kong’s real estate prices have increased beyond control also and at the same time savings have collapsed. Hong Kong’s real estate market is the most expensive in the world with Hong Kongers taking on average 21 years to save up to buy a home, nearly a decade longer than Vancouver, the second most expensive market.
In 2018, it was reported that the average Hong Kong citizen would need to save $5,110,000 to retire, an increase of 18% from the previous year, with the average resident usually only saving $3,190,000. The strength of individual consumers in the Hong Kong economy has got weaker since 1997, with the money that residents have available not going as far as it did previously.
Hong Kong has not benefited in the same way Macau has and thus this has contributed to a more tense political atmosphere, a weaker economy has lead people to not be satisfied with the way Hong Kong has been run and thus be more likely to be opposed to Beijing.
Hong Kong is still far larger with a land area around 47 times the size of Macau and a population about 12 times bigger. The larger economy formed by a larger population and group of consumers would make it more likely to be able to succeed without substantial Chinese support as it could produce more with the greater workforce and could play a role in the thought process of citizens choosing to protest against Beijing. Macau is not in an as strong position.
The economy of Macau bought in a GDP of 50.36 billion dollars in 2017, whilst Hong Kong’s was worth 341.45 billion dollars, making it around seven times larger.
The economy of Macau is far simpler, it is largely driven by tourism generated by visitors to the casinos, 72% of whom come from the mainland. Macau’s economy relies on the easy influx of tourists from mainland China, this has resulted in several Macausese being unwilling to openly say anything against the Chinese due to the belief that would endanger the economic growth they have seen since the 1990s. In Macau, political stability is considered a prerequisite for economic growth. The people of Macau are aware scaring away Chinese tourists could jeopardise this growth. China could make it harder for mainlanders to travel to Macau and this would affect the growth of Macau. In addition, there are more media outlets in Hong Kong, allowing for greater opportunity for anti-government messages to spread.
The difference in attitudes towards the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong and Macau has been caused due to the fact the two Special Administrative Regions have developed differently. Macau has had less of a democratic tradition, thus there is less of a demand, the economy was generally weaker once Britain had colonised Hong Kong as Macau could not keep up with the increased competition. The situation since the two handovers as seen Macau’s position as an easy access point for Chinese to gamble has seen the economy flourish at a time when Hong Kong has declined and lost a degree of competitiveness. It is also worth noting the political history during colonisation benefited Chinese control over Macau more, as whilst Hong Kong was home to a plethora of political refugees, who would naturally mistrust the mainland, Macau was allowed to block anti-Communist refugees and movements. The Chinese emerged as de facto controllers in the 1970s after tension between the locals and Portuguese, this essentially allowed Beijing to play a role as liberators, the situation in Hong Kong at the time of their protests distressed many locals and led to social policies which greatly benefited the local people. Ng and Wong describe Governor MacLehose as Hong Kong’s “most popular Governor”. The economic fortunes of the two have essentially reversed since handover, Macau growing greatly due to the gambling industry, but Hong Kong has been left behind by the rest of China and their economic growth. This means whereas the people in Macau are generally happy with the situation, that is not the case in Hong Kong, which has historically had a more complicated relationship with Beijing. Already more likely to be wary of China due to its political and colonial history, post handover Hong Kong in a time of economic stagnation would naturally look to China and see it failing to grow the Hong Kong economy. In Macau, the growth of the economy has prevented a massive swell of support for democracy due to the increased wealth making the situation more tolerable.
One final factor to consider is the fact the people of Macau have an effective insurance policy even if things were to turn sour. Macau residents were made eligible for Portuguese citizenship. This means should Macau’s political and economic structure collapse, these people have the opportunity to move to Portugal should they perceive to hold a better standard of life. To prevent an influx of Hong Kong migrants to the United Kingdom, Britain introduced British National Overseas Status for subjects in Hong Kong, which does not include the right to abode.
The result of this means Hong Kongers do not have the same insurance policy as people in Macau. This can result in Macau’s population being more willing to put up with transgressions as their exit is easier to arrange, they can simply leave if China takes decisions that detriments them. Hong Kongers without this choice to the same extent, would find it harder to leave for a place they would feel more comfortable residing in, thus it is important they take opportunities to ensure Hong Kong is governed a way in which they approve.
All these factors result in a situation where Macau exhibits higher levels of economic growth and strength since Chinese control resumed in an area less likely for historical reasons to oppose Beijing. Hong Kong is in a more precarious position, losing power and with citizens having less of an option to leave, which is why the attitudes to the central government differ in the two regions.