Zhou Bajun attributes the SAR's runaway success to smooth progress free from domestic and foreign political obstruction

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, arrived in Macao on Monday for a three-day inspection tour of the younger special administrative region. In his meeting with the Macao SAR chief executive and principal officials, Zhang spoke highly of the Macao SAR's outstanding achievements in practicing "One Country, Two Systems". Macao is very different from Hong Kong in population, area and history, as well as economic and political structure, but Hong Kong can still learn from its tiny neighbor in successfully implementing "One Country, Two Systems".

"One Country, Two Systems", envisioned by late leader Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s, is the fundamental principle the central government maintains after resuming sovereign rule over Hong Kong and Macao. The main reason why the "One Country, Two Systems" principle has been exercised much more smoothly in the Macao SAR than in the HKSAR is that all the stakeholders supported the resumption of sovereign rule over Macao by the central government to begin with.

It is well-known that the Portuguese government willingly handed sovereign rule over Macao back to its Chinese counterpart without creating obstacles or planting political "time bombs" as the British government did in Hong Kong. The fact that major Western countries invariably set up their consulate generals for Hong Kong and Macao in the former instead of the latter indicates those countries don't expect to gain much from Macao politically. That is why the handover of sovereign rule over Macao proceeded smoothly and why no significant "resistance" against the central government has been felt in the past 18 years.

Macao's experience also demonstrates that only by aligning democratic development with the resumption of sovereign rule by the motherland can we avoid escalating the inherent conflict between two systems (capitalism and socialism) and provide systematic assurance for economic development and improving people's livelihoods.

Macao's GDP increased from 50.27 billion patacas ($6.27 billion) in 1999 to 363.27 billion patacas ($45.3 billion) in 2015. This means its 1999 GDP grew more than six times in a matter of 16 years, averaging a 13.1 percent annual growth rate. Meanwhile, its per capita GDP reached $69,000 in 2015; it is now one of the richest cities in the world. The living standards of Macao residents have been rising as well, with the median monthly income of its working population averaging 15,000 patacas in 2015, while its unemployment rate has remained below 2 percent for years. The social security system of the Macao SAR has also been improving, so much so that its primary healthcare system has been rated by the World Health Organization as a model. It has also established free education from kindergarten to senior middle school. All these achievements have elevated the happiness index of Macao society as well as local residents' average life expectancy, which has reached 85 years, one of the highest in the world. No wonder it is now the envy of numerous cities around the world.

This, however, is no reason for the HKSAR to feel somehow inadequate in terms of all-round development, considering how much harder it has been to maintain respectable growth despite monstrous obstruction by the opposition camp, which has been receiving all kinds of covert and overt assistance from the West, particularly the United States and Great Britain. It is no secret that London was chiefly responsible for planting a few political "time bombs" in Hong Kong after the UK and China signed the Joint Declaration in 1984 and before the handover in 1997, such as a crude version of the typically flawed Western-style representative democracy, complete with future opposition parties.

Then Washington, as a matter of course, took over the role of directing as well as funding opposition activities - including violent sabotage that borders on "domestic terrorism" by the US definition - in the past 20 years. It should surprise no one that all those attempts to destabilize Hong Kong were aimed at undermining the implementation of "One Country, Two Systems", presumably to serve "American interests". What happened in Hong Kong in the past three or four years can be seen as a "color revolution" fizzing out due to miscalculation, or underestimation of Hong Kong people's collective wisdom. We have shown Washington what a huge mistake it made with illegal "Occupy Central". Now it's time to brush that dark cloud aside and focus on the most important matters, such as the structural transformation of Hong Kong's economy.

Hong Kong should join with Macao in mobilizing their residents to advance the structural reform of their economies by wholeheartedly taking part in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area city cluster development program as well as the Belt and Road Initiative put forward by the central government. Obviously it is a mission of great honor for the fifth-term SAR government, which will officially begin operation on July 1. If this vision comes true in due course we can expect more great achievements by both Hong Kong and Macao in the next five to 10 years for sure.

(HK Edition 05/10/2017 page9)