China yesterday set the clock ticking, literally, for the return of the Portuguese territory of Macau next year, writes Conor O'Clery. Officials unveiled an electronic clock in Beijing's Tiananmen Square which will count off the seconds until the tiny enclave is returned to China on December 20th, 1999.
Just before midday, the deputy premier, Mr Qian Qichen, flanked by elegant women attendants in red gowns, pressed a red button on a red-draped table to lower a 50 ft red cloth exposing the red-coloured timepiece outside the Museum of Revolutionary History.
The clock displayed the information that the last vestige of European colonialism on the Chinese mainland would return to the motherland in 51,279,600 seconds, or just over 593 days.
The handover of Macau will be a more subdued affair than the return of Hong Kong to the mainland last July, which was seen by China as the end of an era of national humiliation. Macau was never wrested from the Chinese by force, but was ceded to Portugal in 1557 (about 161,000 days ago) in return for chasing away pirates. It has been administered by Lisbon on behalf of China ever since. The colony, whose population is 95 per cent Chinese, has no pro-democracy movement and its electoral procedures have been long ago agreed with Beijing. Like Hong Kong it will retain its capitalist ways for 50 years under the policy of one country, two systems.
Macau retains some of its colonial charm but recently has witnessed gangland violence as triads (secret criminal societies) fight for control of money-lending rackets and illicit business on the fringe of the casino industry. A month ago two law-enforcement officials were assassinated in daylight.
Macau police last week arrested alleged top triad gangster, "Broken Tooth" Wan Kuok-koi Koi, just hours after a bomb blew up the car of the colony's senior criminal prosecutor, Judicial Police Director Antonio Marques Baptista.