MACAO

MACAO, small island at the mouth of the Canton River, 100 m. S. of Canton, is one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong, forming with Colovane and Taipa.

It is a very healthy port, though very hot; formerly it was a centre of the Coolie trade, abolished in 1873, but its anchorage is bad, and since the rise of Hong-Kong its commerce has suffered severely; chief import opium, export tea; it is the head-quarters of French missions in China.

In 1557, it became a Portuguese station. Portugal occupied Taipa and Coloane in 1851 and 1864 respectively. In 1887, the Qing and Portuguese governments signed the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Amity and Commerce. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Beijing government declared the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Amity and Commerce invalid. The Chinese government assumed formal sovereignty over Macau on 20 December 1999.