China, Portugal to Hold Talks on Future of Macao

China today announced it will hold talks with Portugal on the future of Macao, the enclave of villas and gambling casinos on China’s coast first settled by the Portuguese more than four centuries ago.

The announcement coincided with a visit by the Portuguese president, and came half a year after China and Britain signed a pact to restore the British colony of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, when London’s lease expires.

That agreement guarantees that post-colonial Hong Kong’s capitalist system will remain unchanged for 50 years. Chinese Communist officials have said they foresee a similar future for Macao.

No Date Set

The Chinese did not announce a date for talks. Portuguese officials have said they will leave Macao whenever the Chinese ask them.

“During the visit to China by the president of the Portuguese republic, Antonio Ramalho Eanes, the leaders of China and Portugal held discussions in a friendly atmosphere on the question of Macao, which is left over from the past,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.

“The two sides reviewed with satisfaction the understanding reached in February, 1979, when diplomatic relations were established between China and Portugal, and the good cooperation between the two governments in dealing with the affairs of Macao on the basis of that understanding,” it said.

“The two sides agreed to hold talks in the near future on resolving the question of Macao through diplomatic channels,” the statement concluded.

The oldest European settlement in Asia, Macao lies 40 miles west of Hong Kong across the Pearl River Delta along southern Guangdong province.

Portugal offered to restore Macao to China in 1974. Peking declined at the time without saying why. Apparently it felt satisfied with the Portuguese administration and was preoccupied with the political upheaval of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.