The method will begin with the institution of a “cooperation zone” on the Macau aspect of Hengqin Island, to be collectively administered by Guangdong and Macau, with a CCP, police, state safety police and authorities presence.
The goal of the zone is to fast-track semiconductor chip designs and different high-tech analysis and growth tasks together with new power, large knowledge, synthetic intelligence and biomedical industries.
In a plan for a brand new industrial and residential growth at Hengqin, an island south of Guangdong’s Zhuhai metropolis, simply over the bridge from Macau, the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Workplace (HKMAO) stated higher cooperation was wanted with Macau to construct properties for its residents and combine town’s economic system with that of Zhuhai and environs.
Hengqin is at the moment a divided island, with a part of its territory leased to Macau and half nonetheless administered by Guangdong.
The Hengqin campus of the College of Macau and the Macau jurisdiction of Hengqin port are managed by the Macau Particular Administrative Area authorities licensed by the Standing Committee of the Nationwide Folks’s Congress.
They’re at the moment topic to Macau regulation and governance, and are separated from the mainland Chinese language aspect by bodily fences.
“By the twenty fifth anniversary of Macau’s return to the motherland in 2024, Guangdong and Macau could have mentioned, collectively constructed, managed, and shared methods and mechanisms to run [Hengqin] easily,” the HKMAO assertion stated.
Border disappearing
“By the thirtieth anniversary of Macao’s return to the motherland in 2029, the cooperation zone and Macao’s economic system can be extremely coordinated and its regulatory regime deeply built-in,” the HKMAO stated.
The plan would additionally help the extension of Macau’s mild rail service into the Zhuhai city rail community and nationwide rail companies, it stated.
“A part of Hengqin is underneath the jurisdiction of Macau, the so-called first line, the place Macau’s civil and business regulation holds sway,” Choi informed RFA. “It is a disguised method to weaken the variations between Hengqin and Macau.”
“This distinction will disappear sooner or later sooner or later, as will the border, and the cultural variations will disappear too,” he stated. “It isn’t nearly whether or not Macau has to contribute funding; it is about assimilation.”
Joseph Cheng, former politics lecturer at Hong Kong’s Metropolis College, stated the same scheme is being rolled out on the border between Hong Kong and mainland China, close to Shenzhen.
“There are two administrators of [the Hengqin] cooperation zone; the governor of Guandong and the Macau chief govt,” Cheng stated. “This has by no means occurred earlier than.”
“However do not forget that the Hengqin cooperation zone is run by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Higher Bay Space Development Main Group,” he stated. “If this mannequin is utilized to areas of Hong Kong like Qianhai, then it’s going to erode the roles of Hong Kong and Macau within the identify of Higher Bay Space integration.”
Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.