Macau

A Portuguese foothold

The first Portuguese ship anchored in the Pearl River estuary in 1513. In 1557 Portuguese traders, paying tribute to China, settled in Macau, which became the principal port for trade with China and Japan and a stop for ships sailing from Lisbon to Nagasaki. China still refused to recognise Portuguese sovereignty, and for a long time the Portuguese remained largely under Chinese control.^[1]

Missionaries made it an East Asian centre of Christianity. When China restricted foreign trade to Guangzhou, merchants spent the off-season in Macau, but by the mid-19th century the new British colony of Hong Kong, 60 km across the estuary, had overtaken it, and Macau was never again a major port.^[1]

Neutral, then handed back

Declared neutral in the Sino-Japanese War and the Second World War, Macau became a refuge for Chinese and Europeans alike. Portugal made it an overseas province in 1951, and after its own revolution in 1974 gave it more autonomy.^[1]

Talks on its future made no progress until Portugal and communist China established diplomatic relations in 1979. In April 1987 the two agreed, on the model of Hong Kong’s joint declaration, that Macau would return to China in 1999, keeping its way of life for 50 years. On 20 December 1999 it became a special administrative region.^[1]

Its own border

Macau’s Basic Law, like Hong Kong’s, makes it a separate customs territory, trading as “Macao, China”. It issues its own passports and its own currency, the pataca, and people from other parts of China must apply for approval to enter. Portuguese may be used as an official language alongside Chinese.^[3] The Barrier Gate, linking the peninsula to the mainland, is one of its sights.^[1]

Macau’s jurisdiction even reaches across the water: in 2009 China leased Macau a parcel of Hengqin Island, across the water in Guangdong, for 40 years, and the University of Macau moved its campus there, under Macau’s jurisdiction, by 2014.^[1]

“In addition to the Chinese language, Portuguese may also be used as an official language by the executive authorities, legislature and judiciary of the Macao Special Administrative Region.”^[3]

Casinos

Since 2000 a huge expansion of gambling has made Macau one of the world’s largest gambling centres by revenue. Tourism and gambling dominate its economy, with visitors arriving from Hong Kong and, increasingly, the mainland.^[1]