CHINA AND PORTUGAL SIGN MACAO DEAL
Prime Ministers Zhao Ziyang of China and
Anibal Cavaco Silva of Portugal signed an agreement to end more
than four centuries of Portuguese rule over the territory of
Macao and return it to Chinese control in 1999.
    Macao will become a special administrative region on
December 20, 1999, retaining a high degree of autonomy except
in foreign affairs and defence. Its capitalist system is to
remain intact for 50 years under an arrangement similar to the
one that will return Hong Kong to China from Britain in 1997.
    China hopes to win back the Nationalist-ruled island of
Taiwan under the same "one country, two systems" formula.
 Reuter
