Briefs | Sulu Sou’s court hearing postponed

The Court of First Instance (TJB) issued a statement yesterday informing that lawmaker Sulu Sou’s court hearing, initially scheduled for November 28, was postponed to a date to be announced after the Legislative Assembly (AL) reaches a decision on whether to suspened him or not. The court’s information follows a request to postpone the trial by the AL president, Ho Iat Seng. Sulu Sou has been accused of the crime of qualified disobedience. This is the first time since the establishment of the MSAR that a lawmaker faces criminal charges. The AL will convene in a plenary meeting to decide whether it agrees to suspend Sou’s mandate and consequently remove its immunity, meaning that Sou would stand trial.

Fourth channel connecting artificial island to Taipa

The fourth channel connecting the Macau peninsula to Taipa has been proposed as a means of connecting an artificial island to Taipa. The Legislative Assembly (AL)’s Follow-Up Committee on Land and Public Concession Affairs announced that the current blueprints of the fourth connection also depict a connection from the New Urban Zone and the Macau Peninsula to Taipa. Lei Cheng I, chairman of the committee, noted that the central government has deemed Macau’s feasibility report regarding the fourth connection problematic. The Macau government aims to deliver another report to the Central Government before the Chinese New Year.

First book on legal cooperation of BRICS countries

The BRICS-Lawyers’ Guide to Global Cooperation, a book co-edited by three faculty members from the University of Macau (UM) Faculty of Law, namely full professor Rostam J Neuwirth, assistant professor Alexandr Svetlicinii, and senior instructor Denis de Castro Halis, was published by Cambridge University Press in September 2017, following the Ninth BRICS Summit, which was held in Xiamen, China, from September 3 to 5, 2017. The book contains 16 chapters written by international experts on a broad range of aspects of legal cooperation of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), including trade, investment, competition, intellectual property, energy, consumer protection, financial services, space exploration and legal education.

New border gate bus terminal expected in five years

Kou Kun Peng, Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Macau, believes it will take the government five to six years to complete the border gate bus terminal’s design, plan and construction. The government has planned to use the harbor coastline at the eastern side of the border gate to build a new bus terminal and a transportation transit system. Kou considers that related works will take a long time because the project might require a water area authorization issued by the Central Government. 

Show apologizes for listing SARs as countries

Korean music awards ceremony Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) has been condemned by several mainland netizens since November 15 for listing Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan as countries instead of regions, during an online voting poll displayed on the awards’ official website.  After Weibo users left comments under MAMA’s official Weibo account criticizing the ceremony for the misrepresentation, MAMA deleted the page and apologized. The comment that received the most likes read “write down clearly, on Weibo, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about what you did wrong and why you apologized.” The music awards show is scheduled to take place in Hong Kong on November 30 this year. It was held in Macau in 2010.

Compilation of documents on Matteo Ricci launched

The new book titled “Compilation and Annotations of Ming and Qing Chinese Documents on Matteo Ricci”, jointly published by the Cultural Affairs Bureau and the Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House, was recently launched with a ceremony at the Shanghai Library Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei. The book records historical material relating to Matteo Ricci, (a Jesuit priest and founder of missions in China), from the Ming and Qing dynasties documentary archives, specifically from the period between the mid-Ming dynasty and the late-Qing dynasty. Totaling over 800 thousand characters, the compilation consists of six volumes – namely; inscription and biography, preface and postscript, official documents, thesis and commentaries, poems and correspondence and miscellaneous articles. The book provides an introduction to the life of Matteo Ricci, specific events he encountered in China, a compilation of his thinking and analyses of Chinese society and succeeds in providing a full illustration of Matteo Ricci’s impact on the Chinese society after his arrival in the country.

Taiwan plans new judicial law for SARs

Taiwan is in the process of establishing a law for mutual assistance with both SARs and mainland China in terms of international criminal justice. Under the new law, the regions will provide mutual judicial assistance in combating drug dealing, cross-country fraud and international money laundering. The bill has been approved by the Executive Yuan of the Taiwanese government and will be discussed by Taiwan’s lawmakers. According to the Executive Yuan, this law will raise awareness among the international community about Taiwan’s efforts to combat money laundering.

95 percent of HKZMB completed

Ninety-five percent of construction on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge has been completed. The bridge will be ready for operation by the end of the year, according to a report by China Daily. The bridge connects to an artificial island, which houses a power transmission project that commenced production on November 16. China Southern Power Grid will operate the power station, which will supply electricity to the bridge’s highway and integrated transportation systems. The bridge’s roads are complete, as are most of the tunnels. The last ongoing project concerns the interior refurbishment of the artificial island’s functional areas.

Lei Chan U questioned gov’t internal management

Lawmaker Lei Chan U asked the government whether officials plan to improve internal management. In a written inquiry, fellow lawmaker Sulu Sou urged the government to institutionalize the cash handout scheme, so as to leave precious political assets to the next SAR government. Wong Kit Cheng also called on the government to set up an office to help victims of domestic violence, as Macau has been reporting over a hundred such cases each month.