At nearly 11 pm last Friday, many Hong Kong reporters just finished their news work and prepared to work off work, and suddenly a nuclear explosion news related to Hong Kong broke out: the US Treasury announced sanctions, including the Chief Executive Lin Zhengyue,11 Hong Kong and mainland officials.Because this is the first time in the history of Hong Kong, senior officials have been directly sanctioned by foreign countries, and the news immediately shocked Hong Kong society and brushed across the entire social networking site.
After that, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, the Hong Kong and Macao Office of the State Council of China, the China United Nations Office, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong soon issued a strict statement of severe words, which strongly condemned the United States' approach.After a lapse of three days, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday that from now on, sanctions on members of the two houses of the United States Congress who have performed badly on Hong Kong -related issues will be imposed.
To be honest, Beijing's sanctions on US sanctions against Hong Kong officials in a short period of time are quite unexpected.First of all, to a certain extent, China takes peer sanctions to the United States, and the actual effect is not great.After all, the United States is still a brother of the international political stage and has a unique influence in the global financial market.The Chinese government cannot regulate international enterprises like a long -arms policy in the United States, forcing them to refuse to serve U.S. officials.A sanctions on some U.S. officials or politicians are limited in actual deterrence.
Secondly, the Chinese authorities are also very clear that the US government has set off a bargain anti -China storm in the past month. The biggest purpose is to refer to the US presidential election in November.U.S. President Trump recently responded to poor domestic crown disease. The polls have fully lag behind the election opponent Biden, and have to increase the anti -Chinese card to save the election.If Beijing responds at this time, I am afraid that it will only fall into Trump's trap.
Therefore, even the editor -in -chief of Beijing Global Times, who has always been popular, also posted a post a few days before entering, calling on Beijing to counter the countermeasures, but they cannot play with each time.He also believes that the Trump team is deliberately looking for China and deliberately enhance the tension between China and the United States. The purpose is to win the election.
From this perspective, the Chinese government announced yesterday that the implementation of countermeasures against US officials reflected that Beijing had endured the continuous provocation of the United States recently and was no longer afraid of showing down with the US government.In particular, Li Zhiying, the founder of Hong Kong One Media, was arrested for violating the Hong Kong National Security Law yesterday. It also reflects Beijing's inner series of anti -China moves such as the US recently sanctioning Hong Kong officials, the sealing Douyin international version of Tik Tok, and WeChat, which is full of anger.
The question is: If the Trump administration will then offer other anti -China measures, what other countermeasures are there in Beijing?Many people focus on three American gaming companies holding gambling licenses in Macau.
The Macau government opened the gaming market shortly after returning.After 18 years of development, US capital has occupied half of the Macau gaming industry, and wealth has increased.According to the data, the three US -funded gaming companies of the Venetian, Wynn, and MGM have created a total of more than $ 10 trillion in huge gross revenue in Macau (170 billion yuan), accounting for 60%of the Macau government gaming revenue.
At the beginning of last year, the Macau government approved the gaming operations and transfer approval of the gaming operations and transfer to the contract to the contract to extend to June 2022. The local Sanzheng and three gambling cards will return to the same starting line.Because there are still less than two years before June 2022, some analysts believe that since U.S. -funded companies have huge benefits in the Macau gaming industry, the Beijing and Macau government decided that the next issue of gambling cards should be used as sanctions against the United States.Another chip.
In fact, investigating the information, the owner of the US -funded casino in Macau has always been the main gold owner of the Republican Party.One of the gold owners.
Another American -funded gambling company Yongli Macau is also similar to Sands.Wynn founder and former chairman, Steve Wynn, was the Financial Chairman of the National Committee of the United States Republican Party. Although he resigned in 2018 because of his charged behavior, he still maintained a very close relationship with the United States Republican Party.
There is no doubt that the gaming industry is dominant in Macau. It involves the employment of the SAR government's finances, the employment of about 60,000 employees, and the development prospects of other related industries.The deterioration of US relations and changes in the national security situation, these factors are no longer the most important consideration in Beijing.
Of course, the impact of Sino -US relations on Macau gambling cards is still difficult to predict accurately at the current stage.If Trump slows down slightly, the US -funded gambling company will still be in an unfavorable position in the next round of gambling card competition in Macau, but there should be a certain room for development.
Conversely, once Trump sought a re -election election, he further provoked more contradictions between China and the United States and touched China's core interests. Three US -funded companies holding gambling cards were all out of time in Macau. I am afraid it is only a matter of time.
