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between China and Portugal was signed about February 1979 under which diplomatic relations between Portugal and China were established. However, the text of the agreement included a
secret clause which was carefully drafted to avoid any outright
admission by Portugal of Chinese sovereignty over Macao but
which enabled the Chinese to claim sovereignty which they chose
not to exercise: if they did wish to exercise sovereignty they would give notice and enter into negotiations with the Portuguese.
The Ambassador said that in no part of the document was it
stated flatly that sovereignty over Macao was Chinese. He
promised that he would let me have for my private information
a copy of the text on condition that we protected the source and
did not let it be known in Lisbon that we had it.
5. The Ambassador added that the Constitution of Portugal
which was promulgated in 1976 described Macao as ''a territory
under Portuguese administration''. This was
This was a significant
change from the previous designation which made clear that Macao
was an overseas territory closely linked to metropolitan
Portugal.
Autward
5 October 1982
A E Donald
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