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Showing posts with label Hong Kong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hong Kong. Show all posts

Thursday, April 15, 2021

West-backed color revolution a ‘top threat’ to China's national, political security


The sixth National Security Education Day falls on Thursday, with the Chinese national security agency releasing a series of cases related to the threat against China's political security. Experts on international intelligence and security said under the intensifying China-US competition, foreign hostile forces have increased efforts to target the political security of China rather than merely conducting regular espionage activities.

The law enforcement cases released by relevant national security agencies this year are different from the past, which specifically focus on the political security issue, including suspects who have colluded with foreign anti-China forces that try to subvert the state power. Some of them are related to the Hong Kong turmoil in 2019, which try to expand the Western-backed color revolution from the special administrative region to the mainland.

"When we talk about national security, people will normally think of foreign espionage activities that target China's military and economic intelligence. But now many recent cases show that the internal and external anti-China forces are colluding with each other," Li Wei, an expert on national security and anti-terrorism at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times.

"This shows that the foreign hostile forces are strengthening their efforts to promote 'color revolution', to damage the political security of our country," Li said, stressing that this has become the primary national security challenge that China is facing at the moment.

Regular espionage activities targeting military and economic intelligence aim to help relevant countries in their negotiations or competition with China, "but the color revolution that directly targets our political security is trying to harm the stability and public order in our country, so it's much more serious and destructive," said a Chinese expert on international intelligence who asked for anonymity.

Technically, a color revolution is a "smarter measure" to help Western countries, especially the US, destabilize or overthrow a country, the expert said. "After the Iraq War, the US and its allies have been more reluctant to dispatch ground troops because direct military operation will cause casualties to their soldiers and other unpredictable costs. But using social media networks, NGOs, and 'diplomats' to mobilize, train, fund and organize local people against the government will cost less and is easier to create chaos."


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"We can see many similar cases in Syria, Libya, Venezuela, Ukraine and Belarus. The main actors in those countries are local people guided by Western proxies, and Western military forces normally serve as a supporting role, and sometimes they don't even show up," he said.

Chinese analysts said the US and its allies dare not directly launch military operations against nuclear-armed major powers, like China and Russia, or their neighboring countries. So after a series of ineffective approaches like the trade war, military pressure and propaganda stigmatization, the color revolution is being used a major tactic to disrupt China's development, and it seems like is the last card that the US can play to stop China from realizing great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

More aggression

In one case among the recently released law enforcement cases that aim to promote national security education, a student surnamed Tian who studied journalism at a university in North China's Hebei Province has become a "cub reporter" in China working for a mainstream Western media. Tian established an anti-China website in 2018 and cooked up and spread a huge amount of disinformation and political rumors.

In April 2019, Tian was invited to visit a Western country, and has engaged with more than 20 hostile foreign groups and more than a dozen officials of the host country to receive direct instruction, which requires Tian to provide "evidence" that could be used to stigmatize China. Tian's acts have seriously harmed China's political security, and he was arrested in June 2019, according to information provided by state security agencies.

Li said this is a typical case of the US and Western anti-China forces infiltrating and inciting Chinese students and using them to serve the ideological warfare against China.

"Working for Western media outlets is not a problem, but if using the profession of a journalist as a cover to conduct activities to harm national security is a crime," Li said, noting that not all employees in Western media outlets are spies, but there are some Western journalists backed by Western politicians and intelligence agencies.

In cooking-up rumors about "genocide" and "forced labor" in China's Xinjiang, Western media are playing an important role, Li noted. "Just like this case, those 'journalists' are receiving funding and training in other countries, and implementing the tactic of anti-China politicians to destabilize China."


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On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at the routine press conference that in 2020, the US ambassador to Turkey met with the head of the local ETIM (East Turkestan Islamic Movement) branch.

The ETIM, or Turkistan Islamic Party, is an extremist, terrorist and separatist organization that challenges China's sovereignty and stability in Xinjiang. The UN Security Council Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee has listed ETIM as a terrorist organization since 2002.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry played a video segment at the press conference, which showed Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator, revealing in a 2015 interview that "a lot of these people are taken out (from Xinjiang) by the Gladio operatives...they are trained, they are armed and then they are sent back."

Putting things together, one cannot help but wonder, what did the US ambassador to Turkey talk about with the head of anti-China force? What is Operation Gladio? Does the US intend to cause trouble in Xinjiang?" Zhao said.

According to the released information, in the past, some arrested former senior officials in Xinjiang said they even colluded with foreign separatist forces to conduct or tolerate terrorist attacks in the region, and use textbooks with extremist content in local schools, which brought serious damage to the national unity and political security.

Hong Kong frontline

Hong Kong is another frontline of China's national security and political security. Since the national security law for Hong Kong took effect in June 2020, foreign forces behind months-long anti-government riots in the city since June 2019 have begun to waver, given that offenders would face severe sentences — as high as life imprisonment. The law would also cut off "the invisible hands" behind the chaos caused by foreign troublemakers, experts said.

It's not surprising to many that Western forces used Hong Kong's open city status to incite color revolution through various channels, including media outlets, student unions, political parties and labor unions by funding, training, advising them or organizing illegal assemblies, protests and riots, all tactics that could be found in the 2019 turmoil.

The implementation of the national security law helped Hong Kong restore social order, plugging the loopholes in local security laws, Chris Tang Ping-keung, Commissioner of Police, told the Global Times on Wednesday, as the law has been functioning as an effective deterrence to those lawbreakers who endanger national security.

Since the implementation of the national security law for Hong Kong, 100 people have been arrested by the Hong Kong Police Force for suspected of endangering national security, Tang said.

Safeguarding national security is regarded as the top priority for the Commissioner of Police for 2021, which is also among the top four tasks for the HKPF. The police team will continue collecting and analyzing national security-related intelligence, investigating in criminal cases endangering national security and conducting intelligence-driven operations to prevent acts endangering the national security, Tang noted.

"The HKPF will also enhance cooperation with all institutions and stakeholders in safeguarding national security and earn more public trust and support," he said.

To facilitate public participation in safeguarding national security, the HKPF national security department has launched a hotline for reporting relevant non-emergency cases since November 5, 2020.

Nasty acts will backfire

Apart from targeting Xinjiang and Hong Kong which are traditional geopolitical hotspots, foreign hostile forces are also keen to use issues like LGBT, feminism and environmentalism which are easy to stir heated discussions on social media via disinformation and rumors to create problems by instigating conflicts between specific groups in China, said the anonymous expert on international intelligence.

Fortunately, this kind of practice is unable to cause a significant impact or escalate into a massive color revolution, since with the modernization and development of China, the majority of Chinese netizens are able to discuss these issues with a mature and reasonable attitude, and legal civil organizations on LGBT or environment protection will distance themselves from hostile foreign intervention, the expert said.

"Those extremists backed by Western forces have been marginalized in our society and their illegal activities online and offline will be managed and controlled effectively by relevant law-enforcement agencies," he noted.

Ironically, the US has found that some of its approaches to push color revolution worldwide could backfire, and the rise of Trumpism and intensifying Black Lives Matter movement and the Capitol Hill riot have seriously undermined its image and credibility when it tries to promote color revolutions in other countries, the expert said.

International cooperation

The Western-backed color revolution is a common threat faced by China and many countries including Russia, and countries in Central Asia, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. So defending political security now also requires international cooperation, analysts said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a press conference after his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in March that the two countries will jointly oppose color revolutions and safeguard their national sovereignty and political security.

"Fighting color revolutions is an important task for China and Russia to not just protect themselves but also safeguard regional peace and stability. The two countries could cooperate on intelligence sharing, joint operations against Western illegal NGOs that would create disinformation to hype instability and cybersecurity," Yang Jin, an expert at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times

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Thursday, March 11, 2021

Splashing $10m a year to split and subvert China, US govt-backed foundation unabashedly reveals funding scheme

 NED's spending on anti-China institutes and projects in 2020 Source: NED website Graphic: GT

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a veteran anti-China foundation financed by the US government, has been discovered to have spent more than $10 million to fund secessionist organizations and subversive activities in China in 2020. In the financial statements published on NED's website in February, at least 69 programs and activities related to secessionists and anti-China forces received grants in the past year, maliciously interfering in China's internal affairs using pretexts like human rights and religious freedom.

NED is notorious for propagating anti-China propaganda and meddling in other countries' internal affairs. Funding for this self-proclaimed private, nonprofit organization, which largely comes from the US Congress, has long been funneled to secessionists in China's Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan regions, observers have found.

Allen Weinstein, the co-founder of NED, told The Washington Post back in 1991 that "a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."

The foundation - once behind some covert operations in Eastern Europe in the 1980s and 1990s - now plays a major role in the infiltration and penetration of US-sponsored hostile Western forces into China, said Cao Wei, an expert on security studies at Lanzhou University.

"Their aim is to contain China's development and rise," Cao told the Global Times.

NED's spending on splitting and subverting China in 2020. Graphic: GT
 

Supporting Hong Kong rioters

On its website, NED published the list of grants for China in 2020 covering four main regions: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Tibet Autonomous Region, and the rest of the Chinese mainland. With a total of $10.2 million, the grant funding in 2020 was much higher than the $6 million it unabashedly spent in these regions in 2019, the Global Times found.

Hong Kong seemed to be an investment priority for NED in 2020, with more than $2 million in grants being targeted to at least 11 anti-China organizations and projects in the region that year, the NED's website revealed.

The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), two major US-based organizations included on China's sanctions list for supporting anti-China forces to create chaos and engage in extremist, violent and criminal acts in Hong Kong, unsurprisingly became recipients of grants by NED once again in 2020.

NED gave the Hong Kong teams of NDI and IRI $350,000 each in 2020, which are the two largest recipients in Hong Kong.

Angelo Giuliano, a Hong Kong affairs observer from Switzerland, told the Global Times the US government has always adopted a strategy of funding NGOs, instructing them to "help" particular countries to change course into more "civil societies," which is, in actuality, a blatant attempt at interfering in the internal affairs of other countries or even subverting their administrations.

NDI's key members reportedly met rioters in Hong Kong to support the violence there. Adam Nelson, a senior program manager of NDI's Asia team, met some of the leaders of the Hong Kong rioters in December 2019 at a local restaurant. The organization's president, Derek Mitchell, was also seen talking with riot leader Anson Chan Fang On-sang in Hong Kong one day in November 2019, just after the region's council elections ended, local media reported.

NED was actively seeking foreign allies for the Hong Kong rioters, in addition to providing funding. The foundation said it spent more than $75,000 in the name of building international solidarity and support for Hong Kong in 2020, openly interfering with China's internal affairs with foreign forces.

NED increased its investment in Hong Kong after the "Occupy Central" movement in 2014. It spent an average of $450,000 every year on the city to instigate acts of sabotage between 2015 and 2018, according to the local news outlet wenweipo.com.

"NED is only the tip of the iceberg, the visible side," Giuliano told the Global Times. There is probably more hidden and complex financing when it comes to Hong Kong, which may have started even before the 1997 handover," he said, suggesting the logic behind it is the US' increasing fear of China and some complex practical interests.

Truth or lies? How Xinjiang victims give contradicting testimonies in Western media reports. Graphic: GT 

 

Making waves in Xinjiang and Tibet

China's Xinjiang and Tibet regions are major regions where the US' anti-China forces attempted to make waves in 2020. NED spent $1.25 million in Xinjiang and $1 million in Tibet to support secessionist groups and activities there, according to the financial disclosures it published on its website on January 25.

More than half of its Xinjiang-related grants went to the notorious separatist organization, World Uyghur Congress (WUC), and its Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) in 2020, the Global Times found.

Based in Munich, the US-backed WUC, which was reportedly found to be linked to terrorist groups, aims to split Xinjiang from China and this goal has never changed, Weinsheimer, a German scholar on China's ethnic groups, told the Global Times.

In February 2020, WUC triggered widespread anger after using photos of some Xinjiang locals to spread rumors during the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. The group printed many photos of Uygur people and concocted false allegations, alleging they were detained or had gone missing in Xinjiang.

One of the persons in the photos happened to be Halat Abudurehman, a friend of Mahemuti Abuduwaili, deputy director of the institute of history at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, who was then also in Geneva. Mahemuti told the Global Times that he was surprised to see his friend's photo there. He later called Halat and found the latter was on a walk.

UHRP was active in spreading the recent mass rape allegations against Xinjiang, which involved a woman named Tursunay Ziawudun who claimed to have been gang-raped in a county in Xinjiang. However, the interviews she gave to Western media before did not include allegations of rape or harsh treatment.

UHRP helped Tursunay get to the US where she applied to stay, BBC reported in February. After UHRP stepped in, Tursunay began to claim to have been raped in training centers in Xinjiang.

NED and the separatist groups it funded in Xinjiang invoke human rights and democracy as a cover, but their actions and activities of maligning the Chinese government and deceiving the world have exposed their real political intentions for dividing China and disrupting Xinjiang region's development, Cao Wei remarked.

What NED kept doing in Tibet follows the same old gimmick, said Wang Hongwei, a professor at Renmin University of China's School of Public Administration and Policy.

"Its grants were used to finance the NGOs that explicitly support 'Tibetan independence,' and to foster illegal publications, broadcasts, or media that keep distorting the history and current situation of Tibet on international public opinion stage," Wang told the Global Times.

Infamous separatist organizations, including the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), and the Tibet Justice Center (TJC) were on NED's 2020 grants list.

Based in India, TCHRD has frequently accused the Chinese government of arresting people in Tibet, which were proved to be no more than baseless attacks.

The US-based TJC was once turned down by the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. TJC aimed to split China and its separatist activities had gravely violated the purposes and principles of the Charter of the UN, said Zhang Yishan, then Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the UN.

Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) was one of the organizations that received more funding from NED in 2020. It got $150,000 under the grant category: strengthening the Tibetan movement - campaigning, training, and strategic organizing. This US-based separatist group was found to have participated in the deadly March 14 riots in Lhasa in 2008, according to China's public security authority.

A more flexible, covert strategy

NED's grant information also showed the anti-China forces' attempt of further infiltrating the Chinese mainland in 2020.

The foundation spent at least $5.8 million in funding more than 30 institutes and projects targeting the mainland, including a $1.2 million grant used to defame the Chinese government on an international scale under the guise of "freedom of expression," observers found.

Among those on NED's long grants list, the organization Solidarity Center (SC) appears to have received more than $1 million to "raise workers' rights awareness," and the US-based secessionist news site, China Digital Times, collected a grant of $125,000.

The data on NED's regional funding and financial statements reveals it has a clear plan and strategy for containing China, Cao Wei said.

Compared with other more intense struggles, the strategy of encouraging these ideologically biased organizations to promote rogue political movements, or to incite hatred under the banner of safeguarding rights, is now more likely to be used by Western anti-China forces, said Cao.

"The strategy is more flexible and covert, less costly, but very effective," he told the Global Times. "It may cause social unrest and even lead to a color revolution in serious cases."

Wang pointed out that NED's primary mission is to serve US foreign policy interests, and a very important part of that mission is to obstruct countries that threaten the US by agitating internal conflicts to weaken and defeat them.

NED has used tactics such as propping up the opposition in general elections or venting at scandals by the ruling party during elections, funding illegal publications, broadcasts and media, and leading figures in the opposition to create images of persecuted heroes to generate public sympathy, Wang said. "All of these tactics have been used on China in recent years," he told the Global Times.

Cao suggested Chinese authorities should actively implement laws and regulations on the management of foreign NGOs and strengthen international cooperation, cutting off the channels of collusion between anti-Chinese forces and their external links, and preventing the formation of rumor mills and fake news proliferation globally.

In recent years, the Chinese government has imposed sanctions on important figures tied to NED, amended the laws on the management of foreign NGOs and counterintelligence, which have achieved certain results, observers said.

Apart from reinforcing the oversight of NGOs in China, Wang suggested the Chinese government strengthen ideological education for people to be more confident in the country and avoid being easily tricked by rumors and slander, he said.

Dirty games 

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Thursday, December 19, 2019

Macao-rise with China while Hongkong in decline, why?


Chinese President Xi Jinping (front C) and his wife Peng Liyuan (behind Xi) walk on the red carpet in front of outgoing Macao Chief Executive Fernando Chui (C) and incoming chief executive Ho Iat Seng (blue tie) after Xi and his wife's arrival at the Macau International Airport in Macao on Wednesday, ahead of celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the handover from Portugal to China. Photo: AFP : 

Chinese President Xi Jinping calls on Macao to modernize governance, build smart city

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Xi hails Macao's prosperity

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Macao's landmark Ruins of St. Paul. Photo: VCG

China's ambassador to UK says Macao can show Hong Kong way forward
 The success of Macao's "One Country, Two Systems" will "light up the path forward for Hong Kong," said Liu Xiaoming, China's top envoy to the UK, during a banquet at the Chinese embassy in London to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Macao's return to China. #HK


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HK, Macao share more differences than similarities

Hong Kong and Macao, China's two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) practicing the "one country, two systems" principle, share more differences than similarities, while Hong Kong's social turbulence offers Macao a lesson, observers and analysts said.

From the former Portuguese colony to the world's gaming hub, Macao is poised to become the richest place, overtaking Qatar with the highest per capita gross domestic product on a purchasing power parity basis by 2020. The small city, with a land area of 32.9 square kilometers, has seen its economic growth skyrocket by over 700 percent over the past two decades and become a city with high social welfare.

While Macao is embracing the 20th anniversary celebration of its return to China, it has been praised again for setting a good example of implementing the "one country, two systems" principle, especially as Hong Kong, which returned to the motherland two years before Macao, has been engulfed in months of anti-government protests.

During President Xi Jinping's visit to Macao from Wednesday to Friday to attend events marking the 20th anniversary of Macao's return, he is expected to announce a series of favorable policies aimed at diversifying the city's gaming-dependent economy into a financial center, according to media reports. And such a move is considered as a reward to Hong Kong's neighboring city for avoiding anti-government protests, according to observers, and some suggested that promoting Macao as a new financial center could be an alternative to Hong Kong.

However, former officials and experts claimed that though the two SARs shared common ground such as a high-degree of autonomy, judicial independence and freedom of the press, they have differences in the way they handle relations with the central government and interpret the "one country, two systems" principle. Instead of simply labeling Macao a "good student" or "golden child" as the city is immune to anti-government protests spiraling next door, it should take a look at the fundamental reasons why the two cities are different from historical, cultural and social perspectives, local observers suggested.

Two SARs' differences

As Hong Kong protesters identify themselves as Hongkongers instead of Chinese, Macao people believe that rejecting their Chinese nationality unacceptable, Wu Zhiliang, president of the Macau Foundation, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"Macao people have a deep understanding of the word 'return'," Wu said, noting that it is not about changing the national flag, or shifting from the governor of Macao to chief executive of Macao SAR government, it is about integrating into the country's whole governance and strategic development plans.

Opposition groups in Hong Kong consider any move of the central government as intervention that erodes its high degree of autonomy, as the central government could not take any gesture, which is a misunderstanding of the "one country, two systems" principle, and is not accepted by people in Macao.

"When Macao comes up with new policies, it always takes the country's development plans into consideration," Wu said.

For instance, when the central government launched an anti-corruption campaign years ago, Macao imposed restrictions on cross-border financing involving Chinese funds, although it had heavily weighed on its pillar gaming industry, local representatives said. "Compared to Hong Kong, there is no such mentality of worshiping Western political systems and social values here in Macao, though it has always been under the mixed influence of Eastern and Western cultures, and people treat those two equally," Wu said.

Unlike Hong Kong, which has been heavily influenced by the West, Macao has a stronger attachment to Chinese culture and values due to its "historical genes."

In the colonial period of Macao, Portuguese control had seen its influence over local communities declining, drawing a contrast with the relatively sophisticated way British authorities took in ruling Hong Kong before handing it over to China.

"There has been no strong cultural penetration of the West in Macao society, which had not been affected by Western social value either," Susana Chou, former president of the Legislative Assembly of Macao, told the Global Times on Tuesday. "For example, when the Hotel of Lisboa was inaugurated years ago, many people in Macao did not know where 'Lisboa' is. Could you image Hong Kong people not knowing where London is? " she asked.

While Hong Kong opposition lawmakers turned debates for rolling out policies into political battles, lawmakers in Macao are not against the Constitution, nor the Basic Law and the Communist Party of China, the former president said, noting that they would come up with different ideas to help roll out better policies.

"It's also inaccurate to say the Legislative Assembly of Macao is the SAR government's affiliate, as we also criticize our government officials a lot. And the assembly often rejects the proposals made by the government," Chou said, noting that the opposition is based on concrete arguments rather than disapproving everything because of its political stance.

Lesson to learn

Considering Macao's historical ties with the mainland, there has been no room for separatism, Wu noted. "But what has happened in Hong Kong would lead us to reflect on deep-rooted questions in Macao, particularly issues concerning Macao youth," he said.

Behind Hong Kong's chaos lie deep-seated social problems, as the majority of arrested radical protesters who trashed the rule of law were youngsters. Although Macao is not facing the same issue, the problems with Hong Kong youth could be seen as a warning sign for the city, observers said.

"We lack a fairer and transparent mechanism for Macao young people to climb toward upper society, and also the numbers of skilled positions are limited," Wu said, noting that the local talent policy is still protective.

"If Macao further opens up its market, could local youth become as competitive as talent from outside? And will talent inflow accelerate social conflicts and anxiety of local youth?" he asked.

While Hong Kong and Macao both share freedom of speech and an open internet, information has been circulating freely on social media and many Macao young people have been well informed about Hong Kong's social unrest for months. When the students were asked about questions on Hong Kong police brutality, many rationally discuss the matter with teachers instead of arguing with their peers and making one-sided judgments, Wu noted.

"Young people could easily influence each other, which is inevitable. It's up to how teachers and parents guide them," he said.

Macao has gained a higher degree of autonomy thanks to the confidence and trust of the central government, which, observers said, creates a positive cycle.

On the contrary, if Hong Kong's opposition groups continue to touch the redline of the central government, it might lead to reevaluation of political risks in Hong Kong by the central government and the expected political reforms could hardly make any progress in the city, observers said.

The virtuous cycle established between the central government and Macao as well as between Macao and the mainland could to some extent serve as a reference for Hong Kong, they noted.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (front C) and his wife Peng Liyuan (behind Xi) walk on the red carpet in front of outgoing Macao Chief Executive Fernando Chui (C) and incoming chief executive Ho Iat Seng (blue tie) after Xi and his wife's arrival at the Macau International Airport in Macao on Wednesday, ahead of celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the handover from Portugal to China. Photo: AFP : 

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Xi hails Macao's prosperity

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https://youtu.be/1RET1xuvHzA

Macao in Transition: Witness to History / Macao in Transition: Rising Stars

https://youtu.be/0Us2YHIMtoA

HK, Macao share more differences than similarities

Hong Kong and Macao, China's two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) practicing the "one country, two systems" principle, share more differences than similarities, while Hong Kong's social turbulence offers Macao a lesson, observers and analysts said.

From the former Portuguese colony to the world's gaming hub, Macao is poised to become the richest place, overtaking Qatar with the highest per capita gross domestic product on a purchasing power parity basis by 2020. The small city, with a land area of 32.9 square kilometers, has seen its economic growth skyrocket by over 700 percent over the past two decades and become a city with high social welfare.

While Macao is embracing the 20th anniversary celebration of its return to China, it has been praised again for setting a good example of implementing the "one country, two systems" principle, especially as Hong Kong, which returned to the motherland two years before Macao, has been engulfed in months of anti-government protests.

During President Xi Jinping's visit to Macao from Wednesday to Friday to attend events marking the 20th anniversary of Macao's return, he is expected to announce a series of favorable policies aimed at diversifying the city's gaming-dependent economy into a financial center, according to media reports. And such a move is considered as a reward to Hong Kong's neighboring city for avoiding anti-government protests, according to observers, and some suggested that promoting Macao as a new financial center could be an alternative to Hong Kong.

However, former officials and experts claimed that though the two SARs shared common ground such as a high-degree of autonomy, judicial independence and freedom of the press, they have differences in the way they handle relations with the central government and interpret the "one country, two systems" principle. Instead of simply labeling Macao a "good student" or "golden child" as the city is immune to anti-government protests spiraling next door, it should take a look at the fundamental reasons why the two cities are different from historical, cultural and social perspectives, local observers suggested.

Two SARs' differences

As Hong Kong protesters identify themselves as Hongkongers instead of Chinese, Macao people believe that rejecting their Chinese nationality unacceptable, Wu Zhiliang, president of the Macau Foundation, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"Macao people have a deep understanding of the word 'return'," Wu said, noting that it is not about changing the national flag, or shifting from the governor of Macao to chief executive of Macao SAR government, it is about integrating into the country's whole governance and strategic development plans.

Opposition groups in Hong Kong consider any move of the central government as intervention that erodes its high degree of autonomy, as the central government could not take any gesture, which is a misunderstanding of the "one country, two systems" principle, and is not accepted by people in Macao.

"When Macao comes up with new policies, it always takes the country's development plans into consideration," Wu said.

For instance, when the central government launched an anti-corruption campaign years ago, Macao imposed restrictions on cross-border financing involving Chinese funds, although it had heavily weighed on its pillar gaming industry, local representatives said. "Compared to Hong Kong, there is no such mentality of worshiping Western political systems and social values here in Macao, though it has always been under the mixed influence of Eastern and Western cultures, and people treat those two equally," Wu said.

Unlike Hong Kong, which has been heavily influenced by the West, Macao has a stronger attachment to Chinese culture and values due to its "historical genes."

In the colonial period of Macao, Portuguese control had seen its influence over local communities declining, drawing a contrast with the relatively sophisticated way British authorities took in ruling Hong Kong before handing it over to China.

"There has been no strong cultural penetration of the West in Macao society, which had not been affected by Western social value either," Susana Chou, former president of the Legislative Assembly of Macao, told the Global Times on Tuesday. "For example, when the Hotel of Lisboa was inaugurated years ago, many people in Macao did not know where 'Lisboa' is. Could you image Hong Kong people not knowing where London is? " she asked.

While Hong Kong opposition lawmakers turned debates for rolling out policies into political battles, lawmakers in Macao are not against the Constitution, nor the Basic Law and the Communist Party of China, the former president said, noting that they would come up with different ideas to help roll out better policies.

"It's also inaccurate to say the Legislative Assembly of Macao is the SAR government's affiliate, as we also criticize our government officials a lot. And the assembly often rejects the proposals made by the government," Chou said, noting that the opposition is based on concrete arguments rather than disapproving everything because of its political stance.

Lesson to learn

Considering Macao's historical ties with the mainland, there has been no room for separatism, Wu noted. "But what has happened in Hong Kong would lead us to reflect on deep-rooted questions in Macao, particularly issues concerning Macao youth," he said.

Behind Hong Kong's chaos lie deep-seated social problems, as the majority of arrested radical protesters who trashed the rule of law were youngsters. Although Macao is not facing the same issue, the problems with Hong Kong youth could be seen as a warning sign for the city, observers said.

"We lack a fairer and transparent mechanism for Macao young people to climb toward upper society, and also the numbers of skilled positions are limited," Wu said, noting that the local talent policy is still protective.

"If Macao further opens up its market, could local youth become as competitive as talent from outside? And will talent inflow accelerate social conflicts and anxiety of local youth?" he asked.

While Hong Kong and Macao both share freedom of speech and an open internet, information has been circulating freely on social media and many Macao young people have been well informed about Hong Kong's social unrest for months. When the students were asked about questions on Hong Kong police brutality, many rationally discuss the matter with teachers instead of arguing with their peers and making one-sided judgments, Wu noted.

"Young people could easily influence each other, which is inevitable. It's up to how teachers and parents guide them," he said.

Macao has gained a higher degree of autonomy thanks to the confidence and trust of the central government, which, observers said, creates a positive cycle.

On the contrary, if Hong Kong's opposition groups continue to touch the redline of the central government, it might lead to reevaluation of political risks in Hong Kong by the central government and the expected political reforms could hardly make any progress in the city, observers said.

The virtuous cycle established between the central government and Macao as well as between Macao and the mainland could to some extent serve as a reference for Hong Kong, they noted.

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