Table of Contents
| I Overview |
| 1. Political situation of Macao is generally stable. |
| 2. The Mainland has not openly interfered with Macao affairs, but it is grooming Macao to be a cross-strait intermediary. |
| 3. The structure of industries awaits transformation despite economic growth. |
| 4. Judicial independence is maintained despite concerns for public order and security. |
| 5. There are growing interactions and amalgamation in Mainland-Macao ties. |
| 6. The international community is generally positive about the development of Macao situation. |
| 7. There were five controversial events since Macao's handover three years ago. |
| II Taiwan-Macao Relations |
| 1. There are close civilian interactions between Taiwan and Macao. |
| 2. Official relations between Taiwan and Macao remain to be established. |
Three Years After Macao's Handover: An Analysis
‧Political situation of Macao is generally stable.
‧The Mainland has not openly interfered with Macao affairs, but it is grooming Macao to be a cross-strait intermediary.
‧The structure of industries awaits transformation despite economic growth.
‧Judicial independence is maintained despite concerns for public order and security.
‧There are growing interactions and amalgamation in Mainland-Macao ties.
‧The international community is generally positive about the development of Macao situation.
‧There were five controversial events since Macao's handover three years ago.
‧There are close civilian interactions between Taiwan and Macao, but official relations remain to be established.
I Overview
Since its handover to the Mainland three years ago, Macao has not only ended four successive years of economy downturn, but also enjoyed two successive years of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth despite the global economic depression. While Macao is less prominent internationally as Hong Kong is, it continues to play a unique role in regional economy and cross-strait intermediation.
Over the past year, the Macao SAR government has operated smoothly under its existing political model, and has worked hard to improve the government's quality and efficiency. The Mainland has not interfered with Macao's affairs openly, but actively promoted Macao to become a cross-strait intermediary. Although Macao's economy may have rebounded, its unemployment problem awaits solutions. It is thus evident that its industry structure awaits change and transformation. In the judicial sphere, judicial independence is generally maintained, while judicial cooperation with the Mainland has been realized to a certain extent. Public security in Macao has improved since the handover, although the number of cases of organized crimes has increased more than one-fold during the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. Public order and security issues therefore continue to be of public concern. In its interaction with the Mainland, Macao has maintained frequent and increasingly close contacts to enhance its role as a regional economic and trade service platform. In the international scene, major countries are generally positive about Macao's development. Taiwan and Macao have maintained steady, frequent civilian exchanges, but official relations remain to be established due to the Mainland factor.
The following is an analysis of the general situation in Macao during the past year:
1. Political situation of Macao is generally stable.
The Macao SAR government has in recent years actively promoted public administration reform and the improvement of government service efficiency. It has completed training of all middle to senior-level civil servants, and has implemented “one-stop service” to upgrade the quality and efficiency of the government. Furthermore, with full support and cooperation from the Mainland, the different operations under the framework of the Basic Law were generally stable.
The middle-level and senior-level civil servant training program that the SAR government has actively promoted is helpful in departmental management, pubic service improvement, and streamlining of the civil service structure. In addition to continuous basic training, the SAR government has provided legal training on departmental authorities and operations, so as to realize its policy objectives. In addition, to simplify administrative procedures, “one-stop service” is emphasized, where the public can complete a series of transactions in one single department or window. For this reason, issues involving job responsibilities of different departments may be resolved in the future with efficiency and in a timely manner through internal consultation. This will serve to improve administrative services and help attracting investments.
2. The Mainland has not openly interfered with Macao affairs, but it is grooming Macao to be a cross-strait intermediary.
In the three years since its handover to the Mainland, Macao has maintained its high degree of autonomy. The Mainland has not openly interfered with Macao's affairs, and Mainland officials assigned to Macao have kept a low profile. In general, Macao's SAR government defers to the Mainland on Mainland-related policies, and there has been minimum opposition from the public. For instance, as opposed to Hong Kong society's intense reaction to the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law, Macao's reaction to the issue is relatively nonchalant, and the legislation did not become a controversial public issue.
The Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) opened its Macao office, the Association's first overseas branch office, on February 4, 2002. Most analysts believe that this was a strategic move by the Mainland in preparation for future exchanges between Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. The media in Hong Kong and Macao likewise pointed out that since Macao has a more liberal immigration policy, a uniquely low international profile, and since ARATS has more latitude in a semi-official capacity, the Mainland is encouraged to take advantage of Macao's preponderance as a cross-strait intermediary and fully capitalize on the SAR's functions as such.
Since both Hong Kong and Macao are Special Administrative Regions, it is inappropriate to give them different political treatments. For this reason, the Mainland promoted Macao's Liaison Office of the Central People's Government to the same level as that of its Hong Kong counterpart in July of 2002. The director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao SAR, Bai Zhijian, is the first member of the Central Committee to be stationed in Macao. This indicates that the Mainland seems to see increasingly value in Macao's unique position.
3. The structure of industries awaits transformation despite economic growth.
The Macao SAR government implemented the opening of the gambling concessions in February this year, thus ending the gambling monopoly in place since 1937. The investments resulting from the liberalization will help future economic development and regain investor confidence. Since the tourism and gambling industries account for more than 50% of Macao's GDP, structural problems within the gambling industry has failed to lower the unemployment ratio despite economic growth.
To revitalize the economy, the Macao SAR government has in recent years focused on tourism and gambling industries as key industries, and has set development of regional economic cooperation and integration as its long-term objectives. Under the above development strategy, Macao's per capita GDP has experienced positive growth for two years running, and the GDP this year is anticipated to have a five percent growth. In preparation for the quota cancellation of textile product worldwide in 2005, and recognizing the increasing importance of regional economy, the SAR government's future economic policies will focus on assisting medium and small enterprises, as well as developing Macao into a regional service platform for commerce and trade. Follow-up observation will tell whether these measures can help improve Macao's economic conditions.
4. Judicial independence is maintained despite concerns for public order and security.
Since the handover three years ago, Macao has maintained rule of law and judicial independence; no single incident has indicated interference by the Mainland. Controversial incidents such as the inappropriate handling of demonstrators by Macao police during Li Peng's visit in February of 2002 are rare. Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, arrived in Macao SAR on the invitation of the Chief Executive Edmund Ho.
Legal assistance between the Macao SAR government and the Mainland has been realized to a certain degree during the past year. The Mainland and Macao has come to an arrangement of mutual assistance on the mutual returns of legal documents and the investigation and evidence collection in civil and commercial cases. The arrangement has taken effect on September 15, 2001. Since then, Macao and Guangdong have exchanged legal documents based on the arrangement. Chief Public Prosecutor Ho Chio Meng said that with the current agreement, it is hoped that a further agreement can be made on document returns, investigation and evidence collection, and transfer of evidences in relation to criminal cases.
In public order and security, since the Macao authorities have adopted measures to curb crimes in recent years, public order and security has remained generally tenable. Chief Public Prosecutor Ho points out, however, that although public security has significantly improved, cases of organized crime filed for investigation with the Public Prosecutions Office are more than doubled during the first half of the year 2002. This showed that public order and security still required close attention.
5. There are growing interactions and amalgamation in Mainland-Macao ties.
The Mainland and Macao maintain various close exchanges. For instance, there were nearly 3.32 million Mainland tourist visits to Macao from January to October in 2002, while there were 16 million visits to the Mainland made by Macao residents.
During the past year, Macao and the Mainland has established mechanisms for cooperation through the Liaison Group for Cooperation between Guangdong and Macao, the Liaison Commission of Macao-Mainland Commercial and Trade, and the work meeting between the Macao and Guangdong Police. The office of the Macao SAR government in Beijing was inaugurated on March 6 of 2002, indicating more frequent and closer exchanges in the future. In his Policy Address 2003 on November 20 of 2002, Chief Executive Edmund Ho indicted that future cooperation with the Mainland on cross-border transportation, industrial zone projects, and talent import will be strengthened. This shows that the Macao SAR government realizes that cooperation with the Mainland, especially with the Pearl River Delta, is key to its success as a regional economic and trade service platform.
6. The international community is generally positive about the development of Macao situation.
During the past year, Chief Executive Edmund Ho and party made many trips abroad to seek international support for making Macao a regional economic and trade service platform. Ho likewise had high regard for contacts with Portuguese-speaking countries. Evidently, Macao has kept its close ties with Portugal after the handover, and Portugal is likewise concerned with Macao's development.
The European Union is consistently supportive of Macao's implementation of the Basic Law under the “one country two systems” principle. According to a U.S. report on Macao's development published in April of 2002, the Mainland authorities have not interfered with Macao's high-degree of autonomy. Macao enjoys judicial independence and press freedom, and public order and security has likewise shown significant improvement. The report, however, has relatively negative criticism on Macao's future democratic development.
7. There were five controversial events since Macao's handover three years ago.
According to media report, in the three years after the handover, there were five controversial events related to liberty, human rights, and rule by law, which challenged Mainland's promise of keeping Macao unchanged for 50 years. In the past year, there was the clash between the police and reporters interviewing the demonstrators during Li Peng's visit to Macao, damaging Macao's international image. In addition, there was also the controversy about the SAR government's clamping on democracy by refusing to provide electricity to the June 4th commemorative activity. These show that issues concerning human rights and liberty in Macao still require continuing close attention.
II Taiwan-Macao Relations
1. There are close civilian interactions between Taiwan and Macao.
Affected by the overall international economic conditions, trade between Taiwan and Macao from January to November in 2002 was approximately US$280 million. Although the figure was less compared with that of the same period in 2001, personnel exchanges between Taiwan and Macao remain frequent. More than 1.179 million people from Taiwan visited Macao between January and November in 2002, up 9.4% compared with that of the same period in 2001. Travelers from Taiwan were the third largest group pf visitors to Macao. Furthermore, the percentage of Taiwan travelers' use of Macau International Airport was a high 70%, highest among other travelers. In May of 2002, the percentage increased to 84.4%. On the other hand, more than 21,000 people from Macao visited Taiwan from January to November in 2002, while more than 400 Macao students were enrolled in Taiwan schools in 2002. From initial estimates, as much as 20,000 Macao people are currently studying and working in Taiwan. The above figures show that personnel exchanges between Taiwan and Macao are very frequent, and that the number is not reduced by limitations imposed by the environment.
2. Official relations between Taiwan and Macao remain to be established.
The personnel exchanges between Taiwan and Macao exhibited goodwill between the two regions. Taking the initiative on January 5, the Macao SAR government in a press release announced that it has allowed the Taiwan representative office in Macao to process entry documents and provide travel services to Taiwan-bound visitors from Macao, the Mainland, and abroad. Following the entry measures started from August of 2001, which allowed Macao residents who had previously visited Taiwan to apply for 14-day temporary stay on arrival, the ROC government further allow residents born in Macao to apply for 14-day temporary stay starting on June 12 of 2002.
Due to the Mainland factor, however, there remains room for development in Taiwan-Macao official relations. Although public opinion in Macao on several occasions have called on the SAR government to establish an agency in Taiwan dedicated to serving Macao civilians, the SAR government has no such plans until now. Moreover, there are limitations in the levels and scope of interactions between the Taiwan representative office in Macao and the SAR government. There is room for development in the normalization and systematization of future Taiwan-Macao relations.