>-----Original Message----- >From: Gabe Menezes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: quarta-feira, 3 de Setembro de 2003 20:16 >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [Goanet]RE: COLACO > > >The British had acceded Hong >Kong first, you are being pedantic to even imagine that the Portuguese >could >have and would have held on to Macau.
Your post assumes too much without factual validity. Why are you convinced that the Portuguese wanted to hold on to Macau?? The facts (if you care to learn) are the following: In 1966, rioting flares all over China. Mao started his great proletarian "cultural revolution" to regain control of the country. The chaos in China spills over into Macau as Red guards plaster the Portuguese territory with violent demonstrations. Portuguese troops fire on rampaging Red guards. Macau's governor, Brigadier Nobre de Carvalho, negotiates from the position of weakness because Portugal cannot come to aid and Macau tiny police force and garrison is helpless. In 1967 Brigadier Nobre de Carvalho suggests that Portugal should return Macau back to China. It was too much pressure for Portugal to keep peace in the territory. Peking, however, declines the offer and pulls back its Red Guards. China claimed it was not prepared to take Macau back. In 1974, following the democratic revolution in Portugal, Macau is again offered back to China. But China declined the offer again claiming it wants to recover Hong Kong first. Portugal decides to rename the province's status to a Chinese territory under Portuguese Administration. And this is the main difference between the British and the Portuguese. While Hong Kong was a British colony till the end and the British probably left very much against their will, Macau was in fact recognized as a Chinese Territory under Portuguese Administration, and, in fact, offered back to China at least twice before the Sino-Portuguese declaration of 13 April 1987 (namely 1966/1967 and 1974/1975). The hand-over of Macau to China was indeed an excellent transition process, achieved smoothly and in an extremely organized manner, which left the Portuguese proud of it. Unfortunately, the most recent articles I have been reading are pointing out for violations of the Sino-Portuguese agreement of 1987, with regards to the increased tax payments that are now being imposed to the working people of Macau, which are leaving them in a much worse financial situation they had before ( violating the Sino-Portuguese agreement of 1987). Another important difference, Macau born people before 1987 are and will always be full Portuguese citizens (with full citizenship rights in the European Community) - just like the Goans born before 1961 - while the Hong Kong citizens were removed from their British overseas citizenship (which have never granted them any European Citizenship rights anyway...). Best regards, Paulo Colaco Dias. ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
