Resumption by China of the Exercise of Sovereignty over Macao

On 30 June 1986, the talks between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of Portugal on the question of Macao started in Beijing and the Joint Declaration on the Question of Macao between the two governments was initialed in Beijing on 26 March 1987. The government delegations of the two countries held four rounds of talks on this issue in nine months and finally reached consensus on all the documents related to Macao. On 13 April 1987, Prime Ministers of the two governments formally signed the Joint Declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Portugal on the Question of Macao in Beijing. On 15 Jan. 1988, representatives of the two countries exchanged instruments of ratification of the Joint Declaration in Beijing, on which date the Joint Declaration started to become effective and Macao entered a transitional period.

The Joint Declaration consists of the main text and two annexes. The main text has seven articles, which stipulate the following: The Macao area (including the Macao Peninsula, Taipa Island and Coloane Island) is Chinese territory and the Government of the People's Republic of China will resume the exercise of sovereignty over Macao with effect from 20 Dec. 1999. The People's Republic of China will establish a Macao Special Administrative Region of the PRC in accordance with the provisions of Article 31 of the Constitution upon resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Macao. The Macao Special Administrative Region will be directly under the authority of the Central people's Government of the PRC. It will be vested with executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication, except in foreign and defense affairs which are the responsibilities of the Central People's Government. Both the Government and the legislature of the Macao Special Administrative Region will be composed of local inhabitants. The current social and economic systems in Macao will remain unchanged, so will the life-style. The laws currently in force in Macao will remain basically unchanged. Due regard will be given to the economic interests of Portugal and other countries in Macao. All these basic policies and principles would be provided for in the Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and will remain unchanged for 50 years.

Annex I Elaboration by the Government of the People's Republic of China of Its Basic Policies Regarding Macao spells out the basic policies that the Joint Declaration has mentioned. Annex II Arrangements for the Transitional Period provides for the establishment of a Sino-Portuguese Joint Liaison Group and a Sino-Portuguese Land Group and for continued friendly cooperation between the two sides during the transitional period between the date of the entry into force of the Joint Declaration and 19 December 1999 so as to create appropriate conditions for the transfer of government of Macao.