History, made up of hundreds of years and millions of stories; the language, and the feeling itself, made of love in often difficult times – created in Macao the breeding ground for relational investment between Portugal and China. Moreover, the only political attitude consistent with the emotional network and the mutual strategic interest. However, dangers and contradictions arise today that it is important to recognize, so that they can be overcome. Among them, the nationalist practice, and the ambition of the Chinese ego, which promotes the gap – and not bridges – with the West; or the Euro-Atlantic pressure against close relations with a global leader who, being unavoidable, openly challenges the global hegemony of liberal democracies.
The last two decades in Macau were decisively marked by the gradualism of the political transition, with the growing predominance of the focus on regional integration and the sacrosanct love of the Motherland. Even so, the bet on bilingualism, on the mission to be a platform, and on a future made of bridges, continues to resist and make sense. China wants it, Macau needs it, and Portugal can only be satisfied and interested in it.
However, there are contradictions today which, although not insurmountable, exert pressure contrary to the mutual interest in that understanding that Lisbon and Beijing nurture, given the barriers that both face today.
As you can read in this edition, there is increasing interest in the Portuguese language and in the added value that this unique relationship represents for Macau, in its relationship with Beijing, the Greater Bay Area and the Portuguese-speaking world. However, there are fewer and fewer Portuguese and the illusion seems to grow that there can be Portugal without Portuguese. But this issue also shows how China is naturally and obviously concerned about the ever higher and denser walls being erected against strategic Chinese investments, as is now seen in the case of 5G networks.
It is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that Macau faces this difficulty in building bridges. The West often lived under the illusion that colonial power could overcome the power of understanding. As is often the case in the East, it was difficult to resist the temptation to reframe Macau as just another Chinese province, destroying its uniqueness. Fortunately, by force of circumstances, and political rationality, History has always been proving that the worst scenarios, having theoretical force, and practical appearance, were always defeated by platforms of understanding.
It is increasingly difficult, in practice, to maintain Portuguese as an official language. As it is not at all easy to see in two or three decades Macau reinforce the presence of critical mass and Portuguese investment. Today, it also seems increasingly difficult for China to reinforce the strategic investment made in Portugal, especially after the sovereign debt crisis in the West, in 2008.
If it were easy, everything would be done – little or nothing would fit us. It’s true: it’s not easy.
But that’s why it’s increasingly important to focus on what matters to everyone: China, Portugal, Macau… and however much it is denied, to the whole world. What makes sense doesn’t always succeed. But this is the sense for which one has to fight.
*Director General of PLATAFORMA
