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I agree. This will effectively place the HK people under Chinese laws that much more harshly punish political decent.

What happened when Macau was handed back from Portugal to China? Did the people of Macau just handle it differently? I do not recall hearing about protests or much from Macau.

I know Macau is very prosperous and has casinos so maybe the prosperity had an effect...

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Macau is only 670,000 people, and over 40% of them were born on the mainland. I suspect that the 澳門人 ('Macanese') people were just displaced by mainland Han Chinese over time. I believe the current Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, ran un-opposed with overwhelming support from Beijing. Hong Kong, being 10,000,000 or so people, was able to retain a much stronger cultural identity. It's like the difference between ceding Buffalo, NY vs New York City to Canada.

It is also worth noting that Hong Kong has a home-grown cultural industry (movies, songs, TV, etc) that pulled a fair share of weight, and this industry was also good at shaping the identity of future generations. Macao is much smaller and doesn't have anything comparable.

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