Introduction

2014 was a vibrant year for youth movements in China's Special Administrative Regions. Hong Kong youth successfully mobilized thousands of people to participate in the Umbrella Movement over demands for universal suffrage. Like Hong Kong, Macao also experienced a wave of youth campaigns in May 2014, with youth activists mobilizing 20,000 protesters against the retirement compensation packages granted to the chief executive and senior officials. In Macao's history, the scale of this demonstration was second only to the support for the 1989 Beijing student movement.

However, there are important questions regarding the overall impact of these social movements. First, did Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement (UM) have a synergistic effect on Macao's youth movement, and did the youth in Macao feel more empowered to campaign for further democratic reforms in the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) as a result of the Umbrella Movement? Second, what was the impact of the UM on Macao's society? How did Macao society react to the Hong Kong campaign?

The aim of this chapter is to understand Macao society's relationship with the UM. I argue that Macao society perceived the UM as counterproductive for economic growth. Many people in Macao felt that the UM was harmful to China-Hong Kong relations and that it would damage development in the long run. To young activists in Macao, Hong Kong's UM was not necessarily the prime motive of their reform campaign, which had previously been ignored by the Macao masses.