Carmen Amado Mendes, Daniel Cardoso, José Carlos Matias, José Luís Sales Marques, Petras Shelton Zumpano and Helena Rodrigues

June, 2011

Since the handover in 1999, Macau has arguably been erased from the Portuguese political agenda, but it has assumed an unexpected role in Chinese foreign policy, as a bridge between the People’s Republic of China and two big political blocs: the Portuguese-speaking countries and the European Union. This working paper aims at analysing the reasons underlying this fact. To do so, the analysis will focus on Macau’s external role and on its evolution within the framework of the “one country, two systems” formula since 1999. The paper will discuss if Macau enjoys some autonomy in its external relations or if it is only one of the parts of China’s broader international strategy whose main goal is to achieve economic development.

Macau, China, European Union, portuguese speaking countries, one country two systems