Macao’s Return to the Motherland

In the early morning of December 20, 1999, the Chinese and Portuguese Governments held a historic handover ceremony at the Macao Cultural Center Garden. The Chinese government resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Macao and Macao returned to the motherland. In history Portugal had begun to occupy Macao gradually in 1553. After the second Opium War, Portuguese colonists forced China’s Qing government to sign the unequal “Sino Portuguese Treaty of Amity and Commerce” in 1887, which placed Macao under Portugal's “perpetual occupation and rule”. After the founding of New China, the Chinese government announced that Macao has always been Chinese territory and will not recognize the unequal treaties imposed on China by foreign governments stating that the new Chinese government will resolve this problem through negotiations at an appropriate time.

On February 8th, 1979, the people's Republic of China and the Portuguese Republic established diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level and reached a memorandum of understanding on the Macao issue. Between June 1986 to March 1987, China and Portugal held four talks. “The Joint Declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Portuguese Republic on the Question of Macao and its Annexes” were officially signed on April 13, 1987, which stipulated: “We declare that the Macao area (including the Macao Peninsula, Taipa Island and Coloane Island, hereinafter referred to as Macao) is Chinese territory, and that the Government of the People's Republic of China will resume the exercise of sovereignty over Macao with effect from 20 December 1999.” In the early morning of December 20, 1999, the national flag of the People's Republic of China and the regional flag of the Macao Special Administrative Region were raised, and the national flag of Portugal and the municipal flag of the Macao City were lowered.

It marked the end of Portugal's 446-year colonial rule in Macao; the return of Macao to motherland has been another monumental step on the road of national reunification.