President Xi Jinping will arrive in Macau this afternoon to officiate at celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of Macau’s return to the motherland, attend a raft of working meetings and meet with residents from different sectors of society, the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS) announced in a statement yesterday.
Xi was in Hainan yesterday where he presided over the commissioning ceremony of the nation’s first domestically built aircraft carrier.
Xi, who is also secretary-general of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), will officiate at the swearing-in ceremony of the fifth-term government of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) on Friday morning.
Xi will lead a central government delegation. Soon after his arrival he will meet with outgoing Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On, who will be succeeded by former Legislative Assembly (AL) speaker Ho Iat Seng.
Xi will meet with senior officials representing the public administration, the legislature, and the judiciary, as well as local people representing all walks of life, tomorrow.
Xi, 66, will attend tomorrow evening a welcoming banquet hosted by the local government, and watch a celebratory variety show. Both events will be held at the East Asian Games Dome in Cotai.
On Friday morning, President Xi will attend the “20th Anniversary Celebration of Macau’s Return to the Motherland and the Inauguration Ceremony of the Fifth-term Government of the Macau Special Administrative Region”.
Following the ceremony, Xi will meet with the principal officials of the new MSAR government as well as senior representatives of the legislature and judiciary, the statement said.
The president is scheduled to leave Macau on Friday afternoon.
This week’s trip is Xi’s second visit to Macau in his capacity as president. His first visit as president took place in 2014 for the 15th anniversary of the founding of the MSAR. He paid a working visit to Macau as the nation’s then vice-president in 2009.
Meanwhile, the Macau Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) said in a statement last night that due to the MSAR 20th anniversary celebrations, a number of flights at the local airport will be rescheduled as some of the related events will take place at the airport.
Earlier this week, the government announced that the services of the recently-opened Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system will be suspended from 1 p.m. today. The services will be resumed on Saturday.
String of celebratory events
To mark the 20th anniversary of the MSAR, the government will hold a range of activities including a flag-raising ceremony in Praça de Lótus Dourado (Golden Lotus Square) at 8 a.m. on Friday. A cocktail reception will be held in the afternoon that day.
The Sports Bureau (ID) will stage at 6 p.m. a sports and cultural show on Friday at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Taipa to mark the occasion. The local government and its Zhuhai counterpart will jointly present a fireworks display on Sunday.
Moreover, the local government has launched a dedicated website (https://www.macao20.gov.mo/) to provide the public with easier access to official news about the anniversary celebrations and the president’s visit.
President Xi Jinping (center), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), poses after presenting the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) flag and the naming certificate to the captain and political commissar of aircraft carrier Shandong, respectively, during the vessel’s commissioning ceremony of the nation’s first domestically built aircraft carrier at a naval port in Sanya, Hainan province, yesterday. – Xinhua
