CHINA, PORTUGAL INITIAL MACAO PACT
China and Portugal today initialled a
joint declaration under which the 400-year-old colony of Macao
will be handed over to Peking on December 20, 1999, the
official New China News Agency reported.
    Portuguese Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silve said in
Lisbon yesterday that China had promised that Macao's existing
political, economic and social system will be maintained until
the year 2050.
    Macao, across the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong, has a
population of about 400,000.
 Reuter
