"text":"Colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th century, Macau was the first European settlement in the Far East. Pursuant to an agreement signed by China and Portugal on 13 April 1987, Macau became the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China on 20 December 1999. In this agreement, China promised that, under its \"one country, two systems\" formula, China's political and economic system would not be imposed on Macau, and that Macau would enjoy a \"high degree of autonomy\" in all matters except foreign affairs and defense for the subsequent 50 years. However, following a multi-year crackdown by China against a pro-democracy movement in nearby Hong Kong, the governments of China and the Macao Special Administrative Region similarly worked to limit Macao's political autonomy by suppressing opposition activity in the 2021 legislative elections."
"text":"essentially urban; an area of land reclaimed from the sea measuring 5.2 sq km and known as Cotai now connects the islands of Coloane and Taipa; the island area is connected to the mainland peninsula by three bridges"
"text":"Cantonese 80.1%, Mandarin 5.5%, other Chinese dialects 5.3%, Tagalog 3%, English 2.8%, Portuguese 0.6%, other 2.8%; note - Chinese and Portuguese are official languages; Macanese, a Portuguese-based Creole, is also spoken (2016 est.)"
"text":"air pollution; coastal waters pollution; insufficient policies in reducing and recycling solid wastes; increasing population density worsening noise pollution"
},
"Climate":{
"text":"subtropical; marine with cool winters, warm summers"
"text":"name is thought to derive from the A-Ma Temple - built in 1488 and dedicated to Mazu, the goddess of seafarers and fishermen - which is referred to locally as \"Maa Gok\" - and in Portuguese became \"Macau\"; the Chinese name Aomen means \"inlet gates\""
}
},
"Government type":{
"text":"executive-led limited democracy; a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China"
"text":"none (special administrative region of the People's Republic of China)"
},
"Independence":{
"text":"none (special administrative region of China)"
},
"National holiday":{
"text":"National Day (anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China), 1 October (1949); note - 20 December (1999) is celebrated as Macau Special Administrative Region Establishment Day"
},
"Constitution":{
"history":{
"text":"previous 1976 (Organic Statute of Macau, under Portuguese authority); latest adopted 31 March 1993, effective 20 December 1999 (Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China serves as Macau's constitution)"
"text":"proposed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the People’s Republic of China State Council, and the Macau Special Administrative Region; submittal of proposals to the NPC requires two-thirds majority vote by the Legislative Assembly of Macau, approval by two thirds of Macau's deputies to the NPC, and consent of the Macau chief executive; final passage requires approval by the NPC; amended 2005, 2012"
"text":"18 years of age in direct elections for some legislative positions, universal for permanent residents living in Macau for the past 7 years; note - indirect elections are limited to organizations registered as \"corporate voters\" and an election committee for the chief executive drawn from broad regional groupings, municipal organizations, central government bodies, and elected Macau officials"
},
"Executive branch":{
"chief of state":{
"text":"President of China XI Jinping (since 14 March 2013)"
"text":"president indirectly elected by National People's Congress for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 10 March 2023 (next to be held in March 2028); chief executive chosen by a 400-member Election Committee for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 24 August 2019 (next to be held in 2024)"
"text":"<em>2019</em>: HO Iat Seng (unopposed; received 392 out of 400 votes)<br><br><em>2014</em>: Fernando CHUI Sai (unopposed; received 380 of 396 votes)"
"text":"unicameral Legislative Assembly or Regiao Administrativa Especial de Macau (33 seats; 14 members directly elected by proportional representation vote, 12 indirectly elected by an electoral college of professional and commercial interest groups, and 7 appointed by the chief executive; members serve 4-year terms)"
"text":"percent of vote - ACUM 20.1%, UPD 18%, NE 13.8%, UMG 12.7%, UPP 11.4%, ABL 10.8%, PS 6.6%, other 6.6%; seats by political group - ACUM 3, UPD 2, UMG 2, UPP 2, ABL 2, NE 2, PS 1; composition NA"
"text":"Court of Final Appeal of Macau Special Administrative Region (consists of the court president and 2 associate justices)"
},
"judge selection and term of office":{
"text":"justices appointed by the Macau chief executive upon the recommendation of an independent commission of judges, lawyers, and \"eminent\" persons; judge tenure NA"
},
"subordinate courts":{
"text":"Court of Second Instance; Court of First instance; Lower Court; Administrative Court"
"text":"Alliance for Change or APM [Melinda CHAN Mei-yi]<br>Alliance for a Happy Home or ABL [WONG Kit-cheng] (an electoral list of UPP)<br>Macau Civic Power [Agnes LAM Iok-fong]<br>Macau-Guangdong Union or UMG [MAK Soi-kun]<br>Macau Citizens' Development Association or ACDM [Becky SONG Pek-kei] <br>New Hope or NE [Jose Maria Pereira COUTINHO]<br>New Macau Association (New Macau Progressives) or AMN or ANPM [Sulu SOU Ka-hou]<br>New Union for Macau's Development or NUDM [Angela LEONG On-kei]<br>Union for Development or UPD [HO Sut Heng]<br>Union for Promoting Progress or UPP [HO Ion-sang]<br>United Citizens Association of Macau or ACUM [CHAN Meng-kam]",
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> there is no political party ordinance, so there are no registered political parties; politically active groups register as societies or companies"
"text":"green with a lotus flower above a stylized bridge and water in white, beneath an arc of five gold, five-pointed stars: one large in the center of the arc and two smaller on either side; the lotus is the floral emblem of Macau, the three petals represent the peninsula and two islands that make up Macau; the five stars echo those on the flag of China"
},
"National symbol(s)":{
"text":"lotus blossom; national colors: green, white, yellow"
"text":"high-income, Chinese special administrative region economy; known for apparel exports and gambling tourism; currency pegged to Hong Kong dollar; significant recession due to 2015 Chinese anticorruption campaign; COVID-19 further halved economic activity"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> the Fiscal Reserves Act that came into force on 1 January 2012 requires the fiscal reserves to be separated from the foreign exchange reserves and to be managed separately; the transfer of assets took place in February 2012"
"text":"Macau’s economy and GDP have been on a roller coaster ride since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020; the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China is heavily dependent on tourists coming from the mainland and Hong Kong to play in Macau’s many casinos, but the ensuing lock downs contributed to a dramatic fall in visitor numbers as well as income; this too, has had a major effect on the telecom sector (particularly in the mobile segment) with short-stay visitors as well as foreign workers on temporary-stay visas being forced to stay away.; total mobile subscription numbers are estimated to have dropped from a high of 2.8 million in 2019 (representing a whopping 442% penetration rate in a region with a population of just 700,000) to less than half that by the end of 2021: 1.3 million subscribers; Macau had almost the highest mobile penetration rate in the world; it is now sitting at a more ‘reasonable’ level of 200%; a significant bounce back can be expected to follow the easing of travel restrictions, although perhaps not up to the same lofty heights achieved in 2019; asecond factor behind the steep fall in 2020 was the introduction of a Cyber Security Law that required all prepaid SIM cards to become registered or face being deactivated in October 2020; the combined effect of the pandemic and the new restrictions meant that prepaid subscriber numbers fell by more than 80%; postpaid accounts, largely the domain of Macau’s permanent residents, were barely affected by the external upheaval; they continued to increase in number, year-on-year, and provided better returns to the operators thanks to substantially increased data usage during the lock downs; the mobile broadband market has experienced the same dramatic fluctuations as the broader mobile segment over the last two years, at least in terms of subscriber numbers; but this is largely because mobile broadband uptake is inextricably tied to the base mobile offering in Macau; with total mobile broadband data traffic going up, not down, between 2019 and 2021, that again points to the strength of the contract segment helping to drive future growth in Macau’s telecom sector (2022)"
"text":"country code - 853; landing point for the SEA-ME-WE-3 submarine cable network that provides links to Asia, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and Europe; HF radiotelephone communication facility; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) (2019)"
"text":"local government dominates broadcast media; 2 television stations operated by the government with one broadcasting in Portuguese and the other in Cantonese and Mandarin; 1 cable TV and 4 satellite TV services available; 3 radio stations broadcasting, of which 2 are government-operated (2019)"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> paved runways have a concrete or asphalt surface but not all have facilities for refueling, maintenance, or air traffic control; the length of a runway required for aircraft to safely operate depends on a number of factors including the type of aircraft, the takeoff weight (including passengers, cargo, and fuel), engine types, flap settings, landing speed, elevation of the airport, and average maximum daily air temperature; paved runways can reach a length of 5,000 m (16,000 ft.), but the “typical” length of a commercial airline runway is between 2,500-4,000 m (8,000-13,000 ft.)"
"text":"no regular indigenous military forces; Macau Public Security Police Force (includes the Police Intervention Tactical Unit or UTIP for counterterrorism operations)"
"text":"Tier 3 — Macau does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Macau was downgraded to Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including investigating one potential case, disseminating awareness-raising materials, and maintaining guidelines for identifying and referring victims to services; however, for the third consecutive year officials did not identify or provide services to any victims, nor initiate any prosecutions; Macau has not convicted a trafficker since 2019 and has never identified a victim of forced labor (2022)"
"text":"human traffickers exploit foreign victims in Macau; traffickers recruit most victims from mainland China, Russia, and Southeast Asia using false job offers; adult and child victims are forced into commercial sex in casinos, hotels, and private homes, and sometimes have their documents confiscated; Casinos and other establishments reportedly allow staff to partner with criminal networks to facilitate sex trafficking; migrant construction and domestic workers, primarily from mainland China, Indonesia, and the Philippines may be vulnerable to forced labor in Macau (2022)"
