China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) held a flag-raising ceremony on Saturday morning to celebrate the 26th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland.
At 08:00, a Guard of Honor from the Macao SAR Public Security Police Force escorted the Chinese national flag and the Macao SAR flag into the Golden Lotus Square.
As the national anthem was played, both flags were raised slowly and solemnly, fluttering in the morning breeze.
Approximately 550 people, including Macao SAR Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai, Zheng Xincong, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao SAR, other officials from both central government agencies and the Macao SAR government, as well as representatives from various sectors of the Macao society, attended the ceremony.
"Watching the national flag and the Macao SAR flag rise together in the morning light, I am filled with pride and emotion. Looking back on the 26 years since Macao's return, we see that, with the motherland's steadfast support, Macao has achieved long-term prosperity and stability," said Wong Chi Choi, a Macao youth representative.
"Since Macao's return to the motherland 26 years ago, our development has been nothing short of transformative. Next year is the beginning year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), and Macao is about to draw its own third Five-Year Plan for Social and Economic Development. We should proactively align this plan with national strategic development, which will bring Macao new opportunities and broader space for development," said Song Pek Kei, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Macao SAR.
"Macao youths should actively enhance their capabilities, clearly identify their personal development goals, and realize their dreams by integrating themselves into the nation's overall development strategy. In doing so, they can contribute to the great cause of 'one country, two systems' and to the prosperity and strength of our motherland," she said.
China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Macao on December 20, 1999.
Macao holds flag-raising ceremony to mark 26th anniversary of return to motherland
Macao holds flag-raising ceremony to mark 26th anniversary of return to motherland
Ronny Herman de Jong, a Dutch-American survivor of Japanese-run internment camps in Southeast Asia during World War II, has recounted the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army against women and children, urging the Japanese government to issue a formal apology to the victims and survivors.
Born in 1938 on the island of Java in the then Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), de Jong was just a toddler when Japanese forces invaded in 1942.
Along with her mother and younger sister, she was forcibly interned in a concentration camp for women and children, where they endured nearly four years of starvation, disease, and brutal treatment, narrowly escaping death on multiple occasions.
"In the women's camps, they would put bamboo sticks under the fingernails. They put burning cigarette butts on women's breasts. That did not happen to my mom, but it happened to a lot of the people. They were severely maltreated. Even little babies were just killed. In the end, there were so many deaths. The mortality rate on Java [Island] was more than 10 times normal, and there were no longer coffins provided anymore. People that died just had to be taken out of the camp and dumped into a big pit that the women had to have dug, or they were just dumped over the fence," de Jong recounted.
After the war, her family emigrated to the United States. Decades later, she published a book based on her mother's secret diary -- smuggled out of the camp -- which chronicled their harrowing ordeal.
First released in Canada in 1992, the book met with significant resistance in Japan. According to de Jong, a Japanese journalist in Canada who had agreed to translate the work was later murdered, halting efforts to bring the account to Japanese readers.
To this day, de Jong stressed that Japan has never issued a formal apology to the victims or survivors of its wartime aggression across Asia.
"Japan has never offered an apology to any of the survivors or victims. Now, Japan is starting to change their democracy by changing that Article 9 [of the Japanese Constitution] that says Japan should not have any armed forces ever again that can start war. And now, the [Japanese] prime minister is trying to change that by reinforcing the Japanese arms," she said.
In 2001, de Jong realized how little the world knew about the Japanese-run internment camps in Southeast Asia during WWII. Declassified documents from the U.S. National Archives revealed a chilling plan: Japanese authorities had intended to systematically exterminate all remaining camp internees beginning in September 1945, just weeks after Japan announced its unconditional surrender.
Since then, de Jong has dedicated herself to compiling testimonies from WWII veterans and former child internees, publishing more books to ensure this history is never forgotten nor denied.
"What I want to say to the generations of now and to come, you have to remember this war -- the Second World War in the Pacific. It was the most cruel and expensive war ever. That is not a war that you can say 'oh, it did not happen'. It does not. That is not true. You have to remember this war," she said.
Concentration camp survivor recounts Japanese army's atrocities during WWII
