My Take | How Beijing and Chinese dissidents think alike: the case of Macau
- Dissident thinker Wang Dan and Beijing always look at developments in Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan against the larger picture of Greater China. What happens in one place has repercussions in the others
Many critics in Hong Kong have, not unreasonably, argued that Macau’s electoral disqualifications are an extension of the political crackdown over their own city. There may be some truth to that, but it’s still too parochial.
The clampdown in Hong Kong has been more gradual, with the first disqualifications dating from 2016 and electoral restrictions increasing in severity, especially after the introduction of the draconian national security law last year.
Isn’t Beijing’s response, then, an overkill? Not necessarily, from the central government’s perspective.
Consider Sulu Sou Ka-hou, the youngest person in 2017 to enter the Legislative Assembly., He has been a thorn in the side of the Macau government in recent years and is probably the best known such figure in Hong Kong. A rising star of the Macau opposition, he is also a protégé and close associate of Wang Dan, one of the most prominent of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest student leaders.