The State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) yesterday criticised the claim that the Sun Yat-sen Memorial House in Macau would be “forcibly taken over by the mainland authorities”, saying that such a view is a type of “political manipulation”.

The Macau Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) last night also issued a statement about the memorial house, which was listed as one of the Macau’s officially protected cultural heritage sites last month.

The Macau government launched a public consultation in March last year proposing to list six more properties in the city as officially-protected cultural heritage sites, including the Sun Yat-sen Memorial House.

All six properties were listed on March 12, about one year after the public consultation.

Macau’s officially-listed properties must be protected and maintained in compliance with its Cultural Heritage Protection Law.

The mansion is named for Dr Sun Yat-sen, the “father of modern China”. Members of his family, such as his first wife Lu Muzhen, lived in the edifice, which is reportedly owned by Taiwan interests. 

According to this law, which took effect in 2014, the Macau government will have priority to purchase a listed cultural heritage property if it is sold.

After the Macau government launched the public consultation in March last year, this provision drew “concern” by some people in Taiwan about the fate of the memorial house in Macau.

According to local media reports, during a regular press conference held by the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office yesterday, a reporter from Taiwan asked whether the Sun Yat-sen Memorial House in Macau would be forcibly sold, or taken over by the mainland authorities.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office, replied that such a view is “groundless conjecture and political manipulation”.

Zhu noted that the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) government having listed the Sun Yat-sen Memorial House as an officially-protected cultural heritage site is “legal, compliant and reasonable”.

Last night’s IC statement noted that having formally listed the Sun Yat-sen Memorial House is a measure that ensures the better protection of the building’s cultural values by legal means.

The statement noted that most of Macau’s officially protected cultural heritage properties are privately owned, adding that the Cultural Heritage Protection Law does not list any limitation on whether a listed building can be sold.

However, the statement noted that according to this law, if a listed building is sold, the MSAR government will have priority to purchase it. The statement underlined that such a provision is also listed in cultural heritage protection laws in various countries and regions such as Portugal, Japan as well as the Taiwan region. 

This undated file photo taken from the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s (IC) website yesterday shows the listed Sun Yat-sen Memorial House.