President of the Institute of European Studies of Macau | ‘If Macau turns only to mainland China, it will lose many opportunities’

José Sales Marques

The need for Macau to continue to relate to and negotiate directly with the outside world is a question of stability and sustainability for the future of the region, according to the president of the Institute of European Studies of Macau. José Sales Marques was speaking during a conference titled “60 Years after the Treaties of Rome: What is the Future for the European Union?” taking place at the University of Macau. The event broadly addressed the different aspects of relations between China and the European Union (EU).

Speaking at a session titled “Macau-EU Relations for a New Era,” Sales Marques said, “According to Macau history, Macau was always more prosperous when it had one hand into mainland China and another in the outside world,” adding, “If Macau turns only to mainland China it will lose many opportunities to engage itself in a much wider context and give its people and economy a much [more] sustainable future.”

According to the expert on Macau-EU relations, long ago (in 1993) Macau was granted a status that allows the region to establish, by its own initiative, relations with foreign countries and international organizations.

These relations, that he clearly stated to be “external relations” and not “foreigner relations,” are clearly written in the Macau Basic Law, he said.  They state Macau is allowed to give itself a leading role to represent China in the establishment of relations and communication channels to the Portuguese-speaking countries under Forum Macau.

Sales Marques fears that the current developments and priorities established by the Central Government that attribute several roles to the region might lead people in the wrong path due to policies and measures being extremely focused on mainland China which will have consequent effects between the relations with others, in particular the European Union.

Regarding the relations between  Macau and the EU, Sales Marques also mentioned that Macau is probably, “the only region of the world that has a dramatically unbalanced commercial trade balance in which the European Union has a significant surplus due to the large quantity of imports from the EU, by the region, namely of luxury goods,” a fact that results directly from its economic development.

Regarding the latest developments in these relations, Sales Marques says that currently there are only two areas in which cooperation and exchange between Macau and the EU are happening, specifically in the fields of “Economic relations and Trade” and the “Legal system,” taking note of the historical background and roots of Macau’s legal system being based on the Portuguese and European models.

Questioned on the current importance of the EU for Macau and possible consequences related to the Brexit, Sales Marques said, “Frankly speaking, I don’t think Macau will gain too much from Brexit; Hong Kong is too important [on what matters to the relations with UK], this is the first reason,” he said. “The other reason is regarding the priorities settled for Macau that are very clear and written down on the Greater Bay area,” concluding, “there are three points [to focus on]: first – one center – means [one] center for tourism and leisure, that’s what we have now; one platform – is the platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries; and one base – and that’s the base for cultural dialogue between Macau, China and other cultures so [the] EU is not a priority for Macau and I think we need to come to this conclusion very clearly and those who live here would understand what I’m saying.”

Also addressing topics on the relations of China and the EU were Francis Snyder and Ni Lili, from Peking University and Shenzhen Graduate School, Javier Wrana, from the University Rey Juan Carlos in Spain and Kenneth Chan, from Hong Kong Baptist University.

An index to account degree of ‘Mainlanderization’

JAVIER WRANA, a scholar from the University Rey Juan Carlos in Spain, had the idea to create an index that could account for the degree of “mainlanderization” in Macau. The idea came as a reply to a talk by Kenneth Chan, a speaker from Hong Kong Baptist University. During his talk, Wrana proposed an index to statistically quantify the “Evolution of relative weight in global terms of the EU versus China,” while Chan addressed the relations of the neighboring region with the EU and the “non-conceptual idea” of “mainlanderization” of the SAR that could jeopardize the role of Hong Kong as a “Global City.” After the presentations, Wrana launched the challenge, saying that he was available “to create an index to study precisely the evolution of what can be considered ‘mainlanderization’ on both the Macau and Hong Kong regions,” and subsequently launched such a challenge to both the University of Macau and Hong Kong Baptist University.