China's completion of the longest sea bridge ever built implies not only the economic developments but huge political moves behind it. The bridge itself will connect a small city of "mainland" China called Zhuhai with the two regions, Hong Kong and Macau, which are both under the special administration and have very different cultural. legal, and economic backgrounds. The primary purpose of this $7.5-billion construction is to boost the economic developments of cities surrounding the Pearl River Delta because they acknowledge the barriers hindering the decades-long China's hope of a Greater Bay Area to compete with San Francisco, New York, and Tokyo. Barriers include different languages, legal systems, currencies, id card/passport, and so on. With the bridge, the time needed for cross all three cities will drop from over three hours to an hour, allowing the west of the delta in which there is need of more cash for manufacturing to send their products to the east with the busiest cargo airport in the world (besides this it is also hoped that tourism to these cities will boost). However, critics are skeptical about the intentions of the government; it can be interpreted as a physical manifestation of China to exert its control over this area and force assimilation. Others are concerned about the cost and benefits of this "extra" project since first the government constructed with the bank loan of worth $4.3 billion accounting more than half of what three cities funded, and second the environmental damages will be detrimental. Despite the critics, it will begin operating within a few months and it is important in my view to keep our eyes on China's behaviors upon South China Sea.

-by Reiji

The Hong Kong - Zhuhai - Macau Bridge 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/04/asia/hong-kong-zhuhai-macau-bridge/index.html