[11 MAY 1987 5
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SINO-PORTUGUESE JOINT DECLARATION ON MACAU
Hong Kong Department
1 May 1987
Mr Gillmore
Mr Masefield, FED
Mr Weston,
Mr Fifoot,
SED
Legal Advisers
Mr Walker,
Research Dept
KI
A
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1.
A Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration on the future of Macau was
signed in Peking on 13 April by the Chinese Premier, Zhao Ziyang,
and the Portuguese Prime Minister, Cavaco Silva, following nine
months of negotiations. A copy of an English translation of the
Joint Declaration is attached. It provides for Macau, like Hong
Kong, to become a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. The
Macau SAR will be established on 20 December 1999. Both Governments
welcomed the agreement as a successful settlement of the question of
Macau and a positive development in Sino-Portuguese relations.
2.
The Macau Joint Declaration is very similar to the Joint
Declaration on Hong Kong. Most of the differences between the provisions of the two are fairly minor or arise from objective differences between Hong Kong and Macau, for example in relation to the judicial and financial systems. The Department has now prepared a detailed comparison between the two, a copy of which is attached.
The most significant of the various differences are:
a)
The Macau agreement stipulates that the majority of members of the legislature are to be elected; the Hong Kong agreement
stipulates that the legislature will be constituted by
elections.
This reflects the present rather rudimentary state
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