Macau independence (; ) is a stance advocating for Macau's independence from the People's Republic of China. The issue of Macau independence was raised in 2016 as a result of controversy about the revision of Legislative Assembly of Macau election law, which is indirectly influenced by the Hong Kong Legislative Council oath-taking controversy. Media outlets, including the Global Times (affiliated with the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party) and Macau's sensationalized Macau independence the following year and were criticized. Critics expressed concerns that raising discussion could turn an obscure, unpopular topic into reality, comparing it to how Hong Kong independence was increasingly discussed after being brought up by former Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (known as the "Father of Hong Kong Independence") for his role in spotlighting the issue. Commentary by Radio France Internationale suggested that Macau independence was a narrative fabricated by authorities to suppress opposition. Portugal had attempted to force China to recognize Macau's independence during its weakened state after the Opium Wars, but Chinese governments have never relinquished sovereignty over Macau.
Background
The Portuguese colony of Macau was established in 1557 in exchange for 500 taels (about 20 kg) of silver per year. Maria II of Portugal declared in 1845 that Macau would become a free port in response to the establishment of the nearby free port of Hong Kong, which posed an economic threat. The government of Macau became more hostile to the Qing offices established in the area, and began a campaign to remove them and expand the colony's territory. The Qing government was forced to sign the 1887 Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking, which (among other concessions) recognised a permanent settlement of Macau by the Portuguese in exchange for Portugal agreeing to not cede the territory to another power without Qing consent. By 1889, Macau had expanded to roughly its current size.
A 16 December 1946 United Nations resolution declared that Macau, Singapore, and all other colonies were considered "Non-Self-Governing Territories," which meant that they could break away from their colonial powers and become independent nations.http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/151/70/IMG/NR015170.pdf?OpenElement The UN passed Resolution 1514 on 14 December 1960, granting colonial territories the right to self-determination and independence. In late September 1964, left-wing organizations from the International Union of Students met in Moscow. On 20 September, leaders of Soviet youth organizations began group discussions and demanded the independence of Hong Kong and Macau. A representative from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) introduced a draft resolution calling for the abolition of colonialism in Asia, listing Hong Kong, Macau, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Oman, Aden, and South Arabia as candidates for independence according to the United Nations declaration. The Chinese representatives strongly objected, asserting that Hong Kong and Macau were Chinese territories which had been occupied by Britain and Portugal; the resolution calling for the independence of Hong Kong and Macau was seen as an attempt to separate the territories from China. The draft resolution proposed by the Ceylon representative was passed. The Chinese delegation later issued a statement accusing the forum of being used by the Soviet Union as an "anti-China" tool rather than a means of uniting the Third World against imperialism.
On 3 December 1966, the 12-3 incident triggered clashes between police and the public and led to widespread protests against colonial rule. Local pro-Beijing leftist groups, influenced by the Cultural Revolution, introduced methods from the Cultural Revolution; through an "anti-colonial, patriotic" struggle, they aimed to seize power from the colonial government. The 12-3 incident resulted in eight deaths and over 200 people injured. The Foreign Affairs Office of the Guangdong People's Committee and pro-communist organizations in Macau, presented six demands on 10 December to Governor of Macau, José Manuel de Sousa e Faro Nobre de Carvalho, including a demand for him to publicly apologize and sign a confession. Beginning on 21 December, the Macau-Portuguese government was forced to send representatives daily to Gongbei to negotiate the confession's content with the Guangdong Foreign Affairs Office. The Guangdong People's Committee closed the border gate at Gongbei in January 1967, blocking food and water from mainland China and forcing the Macau government to comply. The Macau Portuguese government issued an apology on 28 January, signing the "Reply to the Protest Letter from the Chinese Community Representatives," and the involved officials were removed from Macau. The Macau-Portuguese government's authority declined after the incident, and it lost the will to govern; all its political decisions aligned with the mainland authorities and the Chinese Communist Party. It cooperated with efforts to purge Kuomintang influence in Macau; before the incident, a balance of power had existed between KMT and CCP forces. Pro-Communist Chinese leader He Xian became the de facto "shadow Governor" of Macau, and some called Macau a "semi-liberated zone." From then on, left-wing forces controlled Macau society.
On 8 March 1972, the People's Republic of China (which had recently replaced the Republic of China and assumed the China seat at the United Nations) insisted on sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macau. It said that Macau "does not belong to the usual colonial category" and, with a resolution, asked that "it should not be included in the list of territories to which the colonial declaration applies." On 2 November of that year, during a meeting, Resolution 2908 ("Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples") was passed with 99 votes in favor of granting colonial territories the right to self-determination. Five countries – the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, South Africa, and the United States – voted against it, and 23 countries abstained. Under PRC pressure, an amendment was adopted to exclude Macau and Hong Kong from the "list of territories to which the Declaration is applicable"; the right of self-determination and independence in the declaration did not apply to Macau, but the resolution did not address Hong Kong's status because of the UN's lack of authority to intervene in the territorial claims of member states.Voting Record – Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly Macau lost the right of self-determination.
In 1975, the Portuguese offered to return Macau to China. Because the Cultural Revolution was still wreaking havoc on the mainland, however, the CCP refused to take back the colony. On 13 April 1987, the governments of Portugal and China signed the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration to lay out the terms of the handover of Macau to the PRC. The date for the handover was set at 20 December 1999.1553、1849澳門歷史上兩個值得重視的年份——從《基本法·序言》16字概括談起 , 1994年1月"澳門歷史文化國際學術研討会"論文
Ideology Former associate professor in the Department of Government and Public Administration at the University of Macau compared the political stances of social groups in Macau and Hong Kong. He noted that pro-Beijing forces in Hong Kong were crushed by the British colonial government during the 1967 riots. The Hong Kong public resented the leftist forces for disrupting the city's stability and prosperity, and the British authorities curbed their challenges to Hong Kong autonomy. In Macau, however, leftist forces compelled the Portuguese colonial government to concede during the 1966 12-3 incident. This allowed leftists to establish roots across social strata, leading to Macau society being broadly pro-China with a stronger sense of identification with mainland China; as a result, fostering a distinct local identity in Macau has been challenging. The people of Macau have a strong sense of cultural and governmental alignment with China and, from the Chinese government perspective, Macau is considered a more successful example of the "one country, two systems" principle than Hong Kong.
Despite both being colonial governments, the Portuguese response to the 12-3 incident and the British response to the 1967 riots were markedly different. The Portuguese chose to "apologize and admit fault"; the British authorities adopted a "no compromise" approach, maintaining order until the Chinese government forced Hong Kong's leftist forces to cease their activities. These differing strategies led to contrasting developmental trajectories in the two regions over the next 20 years. After the Portuguese government lost its will to govern, Macau experienced a period of stagnation in politics, economy, society, and culture; the British administration in Hong Kong, in contrast, demonstrated strong governance and high public support after quelling the leftist riots. After a review of the causes of the 1967 unrest, the British implemented political, economic, and social reform which propelled Hong Kong into a "golden era" during the 1970s and 1980s as one of the Four Asian Tigers. Macau's stagnation and decline became increasingly apparent, leading its residents (unlike some in Hong Kong who opposed reunification) to view reunification as a means of addressing the Portuguese administration's inaction.
In civil society, Macau lags behind Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a robust civil society with non-government organizations supporting press freedom, advocating for public interests, and fighting for democracy with universities which support political and democratic movements. Students in Hong Kong have discussed the possibility of independence since 2014, with most pro-independence movements originating from Hong Kong universities; growing anti-Beijing sentiment has led fewer Hong Kong people to identify as Chinese. Civil society is less developed in Macau, and organizations representing public interests have less influence; universities in Macau are less inclined to engage in political discussions.
Macau's construction of identity and national affiliation differs from that of Hong Kong. In December 2015, a University of Hong Kong telephone poll surveyed 510 Macau residents. The results indicated that the identification with being Chinese increased by two points over the precious year, matching their identification as Macau people; both scored 7.9 out of 10. The survey also indicated that Macau residents were most concerned about livelihood issues and economic and political concerns, with little change. A 2017 article in The Economist, after the extensive damage caused by Typhoon Hato in Macau, highlighted a key difference between Hong Kong and Macau. Macau residents supported the People's Liberation Army's efforts in assisting with post-typhoon disaster relief, but similar humanitarian efforts by the PLA in Hong Kong were often greeted with skepticism.
Present day Unlike in Hong Kong, support for Macau independence has been limited; this has been linked, in part, to Macau's economic dependence on mainland China. Gambling and tourism account for more than half of Macau's GDP, and the region relies on visitors from mainland China. According to an opinion article on the Swedish news website The Perspective, this dependence discourages support for political movements which could damage relations with Beijing.
The article said that Macau and Hong Kong face similar issues, including rising property values, immigration pressures, perceived "mainlandization" of local culture, limited democratic representation, and intervention by the central government. However, Hong Kong's larger and more diversified economy has given it greater freedom to politically challenge Beijing than Macau.
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