BEIJING – Experts and scholars from the Chinese mainland and Macau yesterday afternoon commended the Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) as the fundamental legal guarantee for Macau’s long-term prosperity and stability.
They made the remarks at a seminar marking the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the Basic Law held in the nation’s capital by the Committee for the Basic Law of the MSAR under the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC).
The successful practice of the “One Country, Two Systems” principle in Macau fully proved that the MSAR Basic Law is a good law, the experts said.
Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee General Secretary Xi Jinping’s previous remarks on the “One Country, Two Systems” principle and Macau showed the central government’s determination and faith to protect the nation’s sovereignty, security and development interests as well as the long-term prosperity and stability of Macau, to uphold and improve the system of “One Country, Two Systems,” to resolutely safeguard the authority of the Constitution and the Basic Law, and to advance the comprehensive, accurate and effective enforcement of the MSAR Basic Law, according to the experts.
Xi’s important remarks have pointed out the direction for the practice of the “One Country, Two Systems” principle and the Basic Law in the future, they added.
The participants in the seminar also spoke highly of the speech delivered by Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, at a symposium marking the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the MSAR Basic Law yesterday morning.
Over 80 people, including members of the committee, as well as experts and scholars from the mainland and Macau,attended seminar.
Promulgated in 1993
The Macau Basic Law was promulgated by the then president of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Jiang Zemin in Beijing on March 31, 1993. It took legal effect on December 20, 1999 when Macau returned to the motherland, the MSAR was established and the first MSAR government headed by Edmund Ho Hau Wah was sworn in. Macau at that time became the nation’s second SAR, after Hong Kong in 1997.
The PRC and the Portuguese Republic signed the Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau in Beijing on April 13, 1987, according to which China resumes the exercise of sovereignty over Macau on December 20, 1999, “thus fulfilling the long cherished common aspiration of the Chinese people for the recovery of Macau,” the Preamble to the MSAR Basic Law states.
While before December 20, 1999 the PRC refrained from exercising its sovereignty over Macau, Portugal had unilaterally relinquished its claims of sovereignty over Macau and its other “overseas provinces” in Africa and Asia shortly after the leftist Carnation Revolution in Lisbon on April 25, 1974. The two states’ joint declaration is an important historic document that paved the way for Macau’s smooth change in administration two decades ago.
