12-3 incident

Pressured by business leaders in Macau and the Chinese government, the colonial government agreed to meet the demands of the protesters and apologized for the police crackdown. Portuguese sovereignty over Macau severely diminished after the incident, leading to de facto Chinese suzerainty over the territory 33 years prior to the eventual handover of Macau.^[2]

The incident[edit]

Schools and education in Macau were divided along racial lines, with the Portuguese and Macanese sending their children to fully subsidized private schools while the Chinese had to send their children to either Catholic or communist schools.^[11] The segregation of education in Macau was an area of great contention for the local populations.^[11] In 1966, residents of Taipa Island, sponsored by the Chinese communists, tried to obtain permission to build a private school.^[12] Despite being granted a plot of land by the Portuguese authorities, Portuguese officials delayed the processing of the building permits, as they had not received any bribes from the residents of Taipa Island.^[12] Despite receiving no building permits from the local administration, local residents began constructing the private school.^[13]


On November 15, 1966, Urban Services Officers on Taipa blocked further construction of the school, leading to a confrontation between Chinese protesters and Macau Police.^[12] The police, including plain-clothes officers, injured over 40 people, of whom 14 were later detained.^[14]


In response, a group of around 60 Chinese students and workers demonstrated outside the Governor's Palace in support of the residents of Taipa Island. The demonstrators shouted revolutionary slogans and read aloud from Mao Zedong's Little Red Book.^[15] On December 3, 1966, demonstrators began to riot and denounced Portuguese authorities for "fascist atrocities".^[16] Protesters, instigated by local communists and pro-Beijing business owners, ransacked Portuguese institutions throughout Macau such as Macau City Hall and the Public Notary's Office.^[8] Violence was also directed towards local Chinese businesses and organizations loyal to the ROC government now located in Taipei. Unlike in neighboring Hong Kong – which faced similar leftist riots – the business community largely did not back the colonial government. In mainland China, specifically in the province of Guangdong, Red Guards, inspired by the Cultural Revolution and angered by the violence towards Chinese in Macau, began to protest in large numbers at the mainland China–Macau border.^[8]


The colonial government subsequently ordered the rioters and demonstrators to be arrested, leading to even more mass discontent and popular support for opposition to the Portuguese administration. In response, demonstrators toppled the statue of Colonel Vicente Nicolau de Mesquita at Largo do Senado, the city center, and also tore off the right arm of a statue of Jorge Álvares located on the former outer harbor ferry port.^[17] At the Leal Senado or city hall, portraits of former governors were torn off the walls, and books and city records were tossed into the street and set on fire.^[18] Consequently, martial law was declared, authorizing a Portuguese military garrison and police to crack down on the protests.^[19] Eight protesters were killed by police in the subsequent clashes, while 212 people were injured in total.^[1] Police also arrested 62 people in connection to the protests.^[20]