Editorial : G7’s risky anti-China ‘de-risking’ strategy

The recent G7 2023 Summit in Hiroshima ended with a Leaders’ Communiqué which includes some 600 words in two of its 66 paragraphs stating that the Western powers “stand together” on nine “elements underpinning” their respective relations with China, apart from claiming that “there is no legal basis for China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea”.On the one hand, the joint communiqué seems to extend an olive branch to Beijing such as by pledging that “our policy

May 26, 2023 | BY admin

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Editorial: We all need to think beyond the box

Editorial        Last week’s BEYOND International Technology Innovation Expo 2023 at the Venetian was a timely reminder that it is high time for all of us in Macau to think beyond the box. Patrick A. Regoniel, professor of Environmental Science at the Philippines’ Palawan State University, has defined thinking beyond the box as “thinking beyond what you already know, in discovering an unknown phenomenon – a fact or situation that simply exists or happens, …

May 15, 2023 | BY admin

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Editorial: Ho’s trip gives big boost to Portugal-Macau ties

Editorial        Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng’s four-day working visit to Portugal, his first overseas trip since he took the helm of the local government in December 2019 just before the COVID-19 pandemic impeded international travel for three long years, has given ties between the two sides a big boost. Due to my tight work schedule here, I was, much to my own displeasure, unable to cover his trip first hand. The Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) has been one of my

April 24, 2023 | BY admin

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Don’t bite the hand that feeds you – Editorial

Editorial        “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” is a very useful metaphor, traditionally attributed to Greek poet Sappho (circa 630-570 BC), to describe ingratitude towards one’s benefactor. I couldn’t avoid remembering this very pertinent, over two-millennia-old piece of advice when hearing about Macau and Hong Kong community leaders’ poorly thought-out comments recently about “too many” tourists, tour groups from the mainland in particular,

April 11, 2023 | BY admin

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A meeting needed like a hole in the head – Editorial

Editorial        Taiwan’s pro-independence leader Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California’s Simi Valley on Wednesday was needed like a hole in the head.I wonder what Reagan would have thought about the meeting. When the Republican stalwart paid the second state visit by a US president to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in April 1984 (Richard Nixon paid the first state

April 7, 2023 | BY admin

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30 years on, Macau’s constitutional backbone as vital as ever – Editorial

  Editorial         At its 30th anniversary, the Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) – its constitutional backbone alongside the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – is as vital as ever. On Friday, the Basic Law celebrated the 30th anniversary of its adoption by the 8th National People’s Congress (NPC) and its promulgation by Jiang Zemin, the nation’s then president, on March 31, 1993. It was an historic

April 3, 2023 | BY admin

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A forum covering 1/5 of humanity that has raised Macau’s status – Editorial

Editorial        The Macau-based Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (aka Forum Macao) was showered with praise by Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng when he addressed its 20th anniversary reception at its headquarters in Nam Van on Tuesday. Ho commended the 10-nation forum for its “encouraging results” over the past two decades. Forum Macao has got the praise that it deserves. The central government’s top

March 30, 2023 | BY admin

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US Summit for Democracy – The Psychology of ‘Us-vs-Them’ – Editorial

Editorial        When preparing this editorial about this week’s Summit for Democracy in the US, I remembered an article that I read a few years ago about the El Paso Walmart mass shooting in 2019 in which a racist killed 20 people because he wanted to stop a “Hispanic invasion of Texas”.Trying to make sense of such an extreme mentality, the Psychology Today author, Arash Emamzadeh, wrote that one way was “to consider it as a form of us-versus-them thinking –

March 27, 2023 | BY admin

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Xi’s speech affirms Shakespeare’s ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ – Editorial

Editorial        President Xi Jinping’s pithy speech at the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) on Monday morning reminded me of William Shakespeare’s inspirational quote from act 2, scene 2 of Hamlet, spoken by Polonius, that “brevity is the soul of wit”.The English translation of his address, delivered in the Great Auditorium of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, comprises 1,458 words. The speech was quite brief but very concise and

March 16, 2023 | BY admin

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12 points giving peace a chance – Editorial

Editorial         “Give Peace a Chance” is one of the world’s most iconic anti-war songs. Written by John Lennon and released in 1969 it quickly became the anthem of the anti-Vietnam War movement. The song raised international awareness of the tragic futility of the Vietnam War which exacted an enormous human cost – its estimated death toll ranges between 1.4 million and 3.8 million. Despite its name, the Vietnam War also laid waste to large parts of

February 27, 2023 | BY admin

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It’s high time to overcome balloon spat – Editorial

Editorial        “No-body can be uncheered with a balloon” is one of English writer and children’s poet A.A. Milne’s best-known quotes. What he wrote is certainly true of almost everyone, not just kids. People’s fascination with balloons is hard to explain – perhaps because they seem kind of magical. Of course, they aren’t. They are very real, not just as playthings for our little ones but also, for instance, as research tools. However, if balloons

February 20, 2023 | BY admin

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Let’s not keep watch at the tree awaiting a rabbit – Editorial

Editorial        The Year of the Rabbit starts this Sunday, January 22, exactly three years after Macau confirmed its first novel coronavirus case. That’s quite symbolic, indeed. Traditionally, in Chinese culture, the rabbit is regarded as the luckiest of the 12 zodiac animals (including the more symbolic than real Dragon), representing peace, longevity, prosperity – all of them phenomena that any reasonable, sensible and decent person is looking forward

January 20, 2023 | BY admin

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Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater – Editorial

Editorial        I hope that the local government’s recently accelerated adjustments to its nearly three-year-long COVID-19 policy will be gradual, well thought-out and as simple and clear as possible, based on the central government’s “people-first” approach thanks to which the world’s most populous country’s novel coronavirus infection and fatality rates are far lower than those in other countries. The situation reminded me of the centuries-old idiomatic

December 12, 2022 | BY admin

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A kind of private-public partnership – Editorial

Editorial        The government’s announcement on Saturday that it has provisionally granted new concessions to Macau’s six incumbent gaming operators had widely been expected although it still contained a pinch of surprise. And the announcement does not only signal continuity on the gaming front but also heralds some major changes in how the sector is supposed to be run in the next 10 years. The announcement’s element of surprise was the ranking of the six

November 28, 2022 | BY admin

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