MACAU Handover

   Applause broke out when the Chinese president extended his "cordial greetings and good wishes to the Macau compatriots who are returning to the embrace of the motherland" and after he stated that "the Chinese government and people are confident and capable of an early settlement of the Taiwan question and complete national reunification."

   "In an international society where all are concerned by the fate of each individual, Portugal will continue to express its solidarity with Macau, and will remain committed to its future in the conviction that here, too, democracy and freedom are an irreplaceable reality, pledge of peace and progress for all peoples," was the Portuguese president's conclusion of his official handover speech.

   Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio and Macau's last Portuguese governor, Gen. Vasco Rocha Vieira, put handover-related documents into a time capsule to be kept for 50 years.

   Susana Chou, president of the first post-handover legislature and a former WTC Macau Board Chairman, was decorated for her services to the public by Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio on December 18, 1999.

   Tens of thousands of Macau residents participated in a number of handover celebrations and attended a string of variety shows marking the historic event.

   Huge crowds thronged the streets to cheer the arrival of several hundred People's Liberation Army troops at noon on December 20, exactly 12 hours after the handover.