MACAU: RETURN TO CHINESE RULE ANNIVERSARY: PREVIEW

(19 Dec 2000) English/Nat
XFA
On Wednesday Macau celebrates its first anniversary of it's return to Chinese rule.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin, is due to arrive in the small province on Tuesday to attend a ceremonial banquet commemorating the end of 442 years of Portuguese rule.
The Portuguese left Macau at midnight on Sunday 19 December 1999, as the Chinese communist flag was raised over the territory in a ceremony attended by President Jiang Zemin and Beijing's top leadership.
Macau was first settled by Portuguese traders in 1557 as a base for their China trade and was ceded to Portugal formerly by China in 1887.
Portugal offered to return Macau to China twice before the resumption of Chinese sovereignty was finally negotiated in the 1980's.
Since the communist takeover in mainland China in 1949, communist organisations have been very successful in developing support in Macau by United Front work.
As a result, even before the return of Macau to China, many of its organisations were considered pro-Beijing.
However, in July this year, Macau saw its most serious protests since the cultural revolution.
Police used tear gas to disperse crowds who were demanding protection from the increasing amount of imported cheap labour from the mainland.
In the past year unemployment in Macau has remained steady at more than six percent.
SOUNDBITE: (Cantonese)
"There were protests of the unemployed this year. The main reason is the handover. The Chinese people have been waiting for a long time to improve their livelihood. There is not another reason for them to wait any longer (now that the handover has finally come) and their lives have not been improved. So they wanted to take some actions to voice out their opinions. After that, the government has taken measures to respond to their dissatisfaction, which includes the verbal promise to reduce importation of foreign labour and to increase employment. But in fact, no real work can been seen."
SUPERCAPTION: Antonio Ng, Legislator of Macau Legislative Assembly and Chief Member of New Macau Association and Union for Democracy Development Macau
Under Chief Executive, Edmund Ho, Macau has run its affairs in a different way to Hong Kong, its sister Special Administrative Region of China, just 60 kilometres away.
An early indication of this was the lack of tolerance shown to a protest at last year's handover by followers of meditation group, Falun Gong.
Beijing has labelled Falun Gong as an evil cult, and it is outlawed on the mainland.
In the first year of Macau's return to China Falun Gong followers have not had an easy time, despite their small numbers of an estimated twenty to thirty people.
SOUNDBITE: (Cantonese)
"Perhaps because of the coming of the handover anniversary, control has been tightened up a lot these days. Many of us are being tailed 24 hours a day."
SUPERCAPTION: Falun Gong
However, the strengthened security in Macau has had the positive effect of significantly reducing the number of gangland related killings.
Another change witnessed in the tiny region is the rapid dwindling of its Portuguese community.
Out of Macau population of roughly 400-thousand people, less than one thousand are Portuguese, and only 8-thousand are Macinese - the result of mixed marriages between Portuguese and local Chinese.
Santos Pinto has lived in Macau for 17 years and still runs his own restaurant which caters to an increasing number of locals and tourists.
SOUNDBITE: (Cantonese)
SUPERCAPTION: Santos Pinto, Portuguese restaurant Owner
Other remaining Portuguese haven't found it so easy.
SOUNDBITE: (Portuguese)

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