Katana VentraIP

Handover of Macau

The handover of Macau from the Portuguese Republic to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 20 December 1999. This event ended 442 years of Portuguese rule in the former settlement, which began in 1557.

Handover of Macau
澳門回歸
Transferência de Macau

20 December 1999 (1999-12-20)

澳門回歸

澳门回归

Àomén Huíguī

Àomén Huíguī

ou3 mun4*2 wui4 gwai1

Transferência de Macau

Macau was settled by Portuguese merchants in 1557, during the Ming dynasty and was subsequently under various degrees of Portuguese rule until 1999. Portugal's involvement in the region was formally recognised by the Qing dynasty in 1749. The Portuguese governor João Maria Ferreira do Amaral, emboldened by the First Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking, attempted to annex the territory, expelling Qing authorities in 1846, but was assassinated.[1] After the Second Opium War, the Portuguese government, along with a British representative, signed the 1887 Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking that gave Portugal perpetual colonial rights to Macau on the condition that Portugal would cooperate in efforts to end the smuggling of opium.[1]


After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and the transfer of China's seat to the People's Republic of China at the United Nations in 1971, then Foreign Minister Huang Hua appealed to the UN Special Committee on Decolonization to remove Macau (and Hong Kong) from its list of colonies, preferring bilateral negotiations ending in a return of the territory, rather than the independence of the territory as was implied by its inclusion on the list.


On 25 April 1974, a group of left-wing Portuguese officers organized a coup d'état in Lisbon, overthrowing the right-wing dictatorship that had controlled Portugal for 48 years. The new government began to transition Portugal to a democratic system and was committed to decolonization. The government carried out decolonization policies, and proposed Macau's handover to China in 1978.[2] The Chinese government rejected this proposal, believing that an early handover of Macau would impact relations with Hong Kong.[2]


On 31 December 1975, the Portuguese government withdrew its remaining troops from Macau. On 8 February 1979, the Portuguese government decided to break off diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, and established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China the next day. Both Portugal and the People's Republic of China recognized Macau as Chinese territory. The colony remained under Portuguese rule until 20 December 1999, when its handover to China took place and became the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. This marked the end of nearly 600 years of the European colonial era.

The first conference: 30 June – 1 July 1986

The second conference: 9–10 September 1986

The third conference: 21–22 October 1986

The fourth conference: 18–23 March 1987

On 20 May 1986, the People's Republic of China, along with Portugal, officially announced that talks on Macanese affairs would take place in Beijing on 30 June 1986. The Portuguese delegation arrived in Beijing in June, and was welcomed by the Chinese delegation led by Zhou Nan.[3][4]


The talks consisted of four sessions, all held in Beijing:


During the negotiations, Portuguese representatives offered to return Macau in 1987, but Chinese representatives rejected that year (as well rejecting previous requests for 1967, 1975, and 1977). China requested 1997, the same year as Hong Kong, but Portugal refused. 2004 was suggested by Portugal, as well as 2007 as that year would mark the 450th anniversary of Portugal renting Macau. However, China insisted for a year before 2000 as the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group in Hong Kong would be dissolved in 2000 as envisioned in 1986 (the Joint Liaison Group would ultimately be dissolved in 1999).[5] Eventually the year 1999 was agreed upon.[6]


On 13 April 1987, the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration by the governments of the People's Republic of China and the Portuguese Republic was formally signed by the Prime Ministers of both governments in Beijing.[7]

Transition period (1987–1999)[edit]

The twelve years between the signing of the "Sino-Portuguese Declaration" on 13 April 1987 and the handover on 20 December 1999 were known as "the transition".


On 15 January 1988, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Department announced the Chinese members of the groups that would begin the talk on the issues of Macau during the transition. On 13 April, the "Draft of the Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region Committee" was established during the seventh National People's Congress, and on 25 October, the committee convened the first conference, in which they passed the general outline of the draft and the steps, and decided to organise the "Draft of the Basic Law of Macau Special Administrative Region Information Committee".[8] On 31 March 1993, the National People's Congress passed the resolution on the Basic Law of Macau, which marked the beginning of the latter part of the transition.[9]

Aftermath[edit]

After the handover of Macau to China, the Macau Special Administrative Region, the Legislative Assembly and the Judiciary were all put into practice accordingly under the regulation of the Basic Law.


The introduction of the Individual Visit Scheme policy made it easier for Chinese mainland residents to travel back and forth. In 2005 alone, there were more than 10 million tourists from mainland China, which made up 60% of the total number of tourists in Macau. The income from the gambling houses in Macau reached almost US$5.6 billion.[11] On 15 July 2005, the Historic Centre of Macau was listed as a World Cultural Heritage site. The increasing development of tourism became a major factor in the rapid development of the economy of Macau.


For Portugal, the handover of Macau to China marked the end of the Portuguese Empire and its decolonisation process and also the end of European imperialism in China and Asia.[12]

Portuguese remains an official .[13] Public signs are bilingual in Portuguese and Traditional Chinese, although signs may also include English.[14] However, many schools teach in Cantonese in parallel with Mandarin and Portuguese.

language

The remains separate from that of mainland China, broadly based on the Portuguese civil system, with some Portuguese judges continuing to serve.[15]

legal system

Macau retained the as its currency, which remained the responsibility of the Monetary Authority of Macau, and pegged to the Hong Kong dollar.[16] However, the Bank of China began issuing banknotes in 1995.[17]

pataca

The border with the mainland, while now known as the boundary, continues to be patrolled as before, with separate immigration and customs controls.

[18]

Macau citizens are still required to apply for a , in order to visit mainland China.[19]

Mainland Travel Permit

Citizens of mainland China still do not have the in Macau, except if they were born in Macau (before or after the establishment of the SAR).[20] Instead, they had to apply for a permit to visit or settle in Macau from the PRC government.[21]

right of abode

Macau continues to operate as a separate customs territory from mainland China.

[22]

Macau remains an individual member of various international organizations, such as and WTO.[23]

APEC

Macau continues to negotiate and maintain its own aviation bilateral treaties with foreign countries and territories. These include flights to Taiwan.[25]

[24]

Macau remains an individual member of sporting organizations such as .[26] However, the Sports and Olympic Committee of Macau, China, while a member of the Olympic Council of Asia, is not a member of the International Olympic Committee.[27]

FIFA

Macau citizens continue to have easier access to many countries, including those in Europe and North America, with Macau SAR passport holders having visa-free access to 117 other countries and territories.

[28]

Foreign nationals, including Portuguese citizens, are allowed to hold high-level positions in the administration, except the office of Chief Executive; those who will apply for Chief Executive position will have to be naturalized as Chinese. This was in contrast to Hong Kong, where such positions were restricted to citizens of the SAR.[30]

[29]

Members of the existing , who had been elected in 1996, remained in office until 2001, although those who had been appointed by the Governor were replaced by those appointed by the incoming Chief Executive.[31]

Legislative Assembly

Foreign nationals, including Portuguese citizens, are still allowed to stand for directly elected seats in the .[32] This is in contrast to Hong Kong, where foreign nationals can only stand for indirectly elected seats in the Legislative Council.[33]

Legislative Assembly

Macau continues to have more political freedoms than , with the holding of demonstrations and annual memorials to commemorate the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in Senado Square.[34] However, pro-democracy politicians and academics from Hong Kong were refused entry.[35]

mainland China

Macau continues to have more than mainland China despite the growing influence of Beijing and Hong Kong journalists being refused entry.[36]

freedom of the press

Macau continues to have its own participating in the political system.[37] These are separate from the Communist-led United Front on the mainland.[38]

civic groups

Macau also continues to have more religious freedoms, with the remaining under the jurisdiction of the Holy See, instead of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association on the mainland.[39] However, the Falun Gong spiritual practice has faced restrictions.[40]

Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau

Macau continues to unlike mainland China, all of which has driven on the right since 1946, or Portugal and most other Portuguese colonies, which switched to the right in 1928.[41] Vehicle registration plates continued to follow the old Portuguese format, with white characters on a black plate.[42] This had been discontinued in Portugal in 1992.[43]

drive on the left

vehicles can travel to and from mainland China, but require special cross-border plates, similar to those of Guangdong.[44]

Macau-registered

Macau retains a separate (853) and telephone numbering plan from that of the mainland.[45] Calls between Macau and the mainland still require international dialling.[46]

international dialling code

Macau retains different technical standards from mainland China, such as electrical plugs.[47] However, Macau would later adopt the digital TV standard devised in mainland China, instead of DVB-T, replacing PAL-I for TV transmissions.[48]

British-style

Macau retains a separate code, MO.[49] It also retains a top-level domain, .mo.[50] However, the Chinese code CN-92 was also used.[51]

ISO 3166

Macau retains its own separate , with Correios de Macau operating separately from China Post.[52] Macau was not made part of the Chinese postcode system, nor did it introduce a postcode system of its own.[53]

postal services

Portuguese-influenced place names remain unchanged, although their unrelated Chinese equivalents are already in use; for example, is known as San Ma Lou or "new road".[54]

Avenida Almeida Ribeiro

Portuguese monuments remain, although the statue of former Governor was taken down in 1992.[55] The statue is now located at the Bairro da Encarnação, Lisbon, Portugal, where it was placed in December 1999.[56]

João Maria Ferreira do Amaral

The floor on the ground level continues to be officially referred to by the Portuguese abbreviation R/C (rés-do-chão).

[57]

Handover of Hong Kong

One country, two systems

Handover Gifts Museum of Macao

Time Capsule (Macau)

Lai, Pauline Pou San. "" (Chapter 7). In: Podger, Andrew and John Wanna (editors). Sharpening the Sword of State: Building Executive Capacities in the Public Services of Asia-Pacific Archived 21 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine. ANU Press, 2016. ISBN 9781760460723 (paperback), 9781760460730 (ebook). HTML version of the chapter.

Civil service training in the Macau Government

Chan, Ming K. (August 2003). (PDF). Journal of Contemporary China. 12 (36): 493–518. doi:10.1080/10670560305473. S2CID 925886.

"Different Roads to Home: The Retrocession of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese sovereignty"

Silva Fernandes, Moisés. (PDF).

"Portuguese Behavior Towards the Political Transition and Regional Integration of Macau in the Pearl River Region"

Official website

Archived 20 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine (in Chinese)

The Chinese garrison in Macau