Top HK-Macau affairs official calls for defence against foreign intervention

Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council, said that Macau and Hong Kong must defend against external forces from interfering in the two SARs’ affairs.

Yesterday, the People’s Daily published an article penned by Zhang about the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy. In the article, Zhang advanced that the two SARs must prevent foreign forces from carrying out activities of division, subversion, penetration and destruction in the regions.

“We must go head-to-head, establish a sound anti-intervention coordination mechanism with the governments of the SARs and we must not allow external forces to do whatever they want in Hong Kong and Macau,” Zhang wrote.

Zhang wants the people and governments of the two SARs to respect the historical changes following the respective handovers of Macau and Hong Kong.

Zhang wrote about his concerns concerning Macau’s ability to solve its economic problems, particularly in relation to the gaming industry. He suggested that Macau’s economic diversification efforts have proven ineffective.

In light of Macau and Hong Kong’s economic structures, market spaces, and geographies, the two SARs alone cannot resolve these deeply-rooted contradictions and problems, which affect social stability and long-term development, according to Zhang.

These difficulties require the public to change their mindsets and “break the myths of mainlandization,” he wrote, in reference to the fear held by many people that the SARs are becoming increasingly similar to mainland China. Instead, the public must learn to use the vast mainland market and mainland’s strong development to solve the SARs’ problems.

Zhang specifically commended Macau’s accomplishments in abiding by Article 23 of the Basic Law, and establishing the national security and national anthem laws. According to Zhang, Macau’s “next step is to formulate and modify relevant supporting legislation.”

Commenting on the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy, Zhang wants Macau and Hong Kong people to respect mainland China’s ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’, including the political system whose core is under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. JZ