Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | October 2010 20 Qing dynasty in 1917, China had been nibbled away at its edges by repeated foreign encroachment. This encroachment became so pervasive that from the mid- 19th century to the early 20th century, just about every major Western power had a trading outpost in China that was in effect a mini-colony immune from Chinese laws. The British set the trend for this with the Treaty of Nanking (modern- day Nanjing) in 1842. While the most famous provision of this document was the ceding by the Chinese emperor of the island of Hong Kong, an equally important provision was the introduction of the concept of ‘extraterritoriality’. This long word describes a fairly straight forward concept, namely that British nationals in China would be immune from Chinese law. The psychological impact of this and subsequent national humiliations on China from the so-called ‘Unequal Treaties’ should not be underestimated when Westerners seek to understand modern Chinese attitudes to international investment. As a Chinese acquaintance close to one of the most prominent community leaders in Macau recently told this correspondent: “We Chinese are very respectful toward foreigners and a little bit scared of them too. So when a foreigner starts lecturing us on how to do things, it hurts.” jobs it is creating. The government is currently insisting that one local person should be employed in the building work for every migrant hired. The projects between them need thousands of people on site at any one time and the unemployment rate in Macau in the June to August period was only 2.9% according to Macau’s Statistics andCensus Service.Viewed from the perspective of a public gaming company committed to massive capital investment, and under commercial pressure to pay off debt, Macau’s insistence on the one-for-one policy looks at best arbitrary and at worse irrational. Viewed, however, from the perspective of local politics and local culture, it makes considerable sense. Confucian contract When Macau’s low skilled, middle- aged unemployed protest on the streets about Macau allowing too many migrant workers in on the casino projects, they are being somewhat bloody-minded, but not inconsistently so. They are arguably calling on the community leadership to honour its side of a Confucian social contract most Westerners may not even be aware of. Confucianism, with its emphasis on social harmony, isn’t just about hierarchy and knowing one’s place. Rather like feudalism in mediaeval Europe, the system depends on mutuality and a personal relationship between social classes. By that reading, the rulers of Macau must exercise their Confucian responsibilities and listen to the grievances of the people at the bottom of the system, not simply refer those complaints over things like labour hiring policies to a civil servant or a court. Nationalism, or at least assertion of Chinese national identity, might also play a role in this situation. China has seen just what a negative effect unrestrained activity by multinational companies has had in parts of Africa and South America. On those continents businesses have on occasion become either more powerful than the state, or at least a serious rival to it. Lessons learned There are also historical precedents closer to home regarding the dangers of allowing foreign commercial interests to gain too much control over Chinese society—and not just in Macau and Hong Kong, former possessions of Western powers. Prior to the final collapse of the Macau Policy Foreign occupation—Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion of 1898 to 1901