Our traveling Minister in East Asia made a trip recently to the old British colony of Hong Kong. This great city on the south east coast of China continues to be a financial and cultural center for most of east Asia. Our Minister looked over the various infrastructure improvements made since the city was turned over to China some 25 years ago. Despite assurances from Beijing that the city would retain its political stature as an autonomous region, recent actions have indicated that that viewpoint has been altered to reflect Pres. Xi JP's power consolidation and extension of direct control over government operation and oversight of Hong Kong, which includes Macao, the old Portuguese colony across the harbor from HK.
Now our minister, fluent in Portuguese decided to include a visit to the former gambling den of Chinese bettors and gamers. He expected to find an overlay of the former Portuguese influence. He has been disappointed in this endeavor: there's not much left of the former European country's presence. Number one: nobody speaks or understands the Portuguese language. How can this be? Simple: there aren't any Portuguese left in the city and nobody has learned to speak the language because there's no need. However, No.2, all the signage is in Portuguese. Hmmmm. What's going on here? Apparently, there's an attempt to place a veneer of provincial flavor here to attract visitors.
(Exotic Macao?).
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