Macau unworried by return of Broken Tooth from jail
Security and economy much better than when triads unleashed pre-handover wave of violence
Triads in Macau now earn rich pickings from the city's casinos instead of robbing the public. And with Beijing in charge, the public disorder that dogged the then Portuguese enclave before the 1999 handover is unlikely to be seen again.
So say a Macau politician and a businessman whose trade was badly affected by pre-handover criminality.
They suggest the public does not expect the release of the once-feared gangster "Broken Tooth" Wan Kuok-koi, 57, from prison yesterday to destabilise Macau.
Au Kam-san, a New Democratic Macau Association legislator, said the city's residents were generally not worried, as the public security situation had changed in the past 13 years.
"Gangsters in Macau have never been afraid of their own government, whether it is the Portuguese or the Macau people," Au said.
"The only thing they fear in the world is the Chinese Communist Party.