Susana Chou: the businesswoman who became the first President of the Macao SAR Legislative Assembly
Susana Chou was the first President of the Legislative Assembly of the Macao SAR, holding the post across three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2009. Born into a Shanghai industrialist family and resident in Macao from 1968, she won a seat in Portuguese Macao's first direct Legislative Assembly election in 1976 and served across both the Portuguese and SAR eras. One of the city's best-known women in business and among its earliest localised legislators, she later served as a Standing Committee member of the CPPCC and deputy director of the Basic Law Committee, and received the Grand Lotus Medal of Honour in 2003.
Susana Chou曹其真
First President of the Legislative Assembly of the Macao SAR (1999–2009) · Legislative Assembly of the Macao SAR1941-Published Jan 1, 2026
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Susana Chou was the first President of the Legislative Assembly of the Macao SAR, holding the post across three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2009. Born into a Shanghai industrialist family and resident in Macao from 1968, she won a seat in Portuguese Macao's first direct Legislative Assembly election in 1976 and served across both the Portuguese and SAR eras. One of the city's best-known women in business and among its earliest localised legislators, she later served as a Standing Committee member of the CPPCC and deputy director of the Basic Law Committee, and received the Grand Lotus Medal of Honour in 2003.
From a Shanghai textile dynasty to a seat in Portuguese Macao's first direct election, and on to the first President's chair of the SAR Legislative Assembly — Susana Chou spent three decades writing herself into the opening chapter of Macao's legislature.
Susana Chou was the first President of the Legislative Assembly of the Macao SAR (1999–2009). One of the city's best-known businesswomen and a senior legislator spanning both the Portuguese and SAR eras, her public life runs almost in parallel with the transformation of Macao's legislature from a colonial assembly into a Basic Law-based SAR institution — from the territory's first direct election in 1976 to three consecutive terms as the SAR Legislative Assembly's first President.
Profile
: 曹其真
Chinese Name
English Name: Susana Chou
Portuguese Name: Susana Chou Vaz da Luz
Ancestry: Ningbo, Zhejiang
Born: December 1941 (Shanghai)
Domains: Politics · Business
Subject type: Official (first Legislative Assembly President)
Languages: Chinese, Portuguese, English, French
Assumed presidency: 1999 (re-elected through 2009)
Background
Susana Chou was born in Shanghai in December 1941, with ancestral roots in Ningbo, Zhejiang, into a family of industrialists — her father, Chao Kuang Piu, was a noted textile entrepreneur. She studied physics at Anhui University, then French language and literature at the University of Paris, and was fluent in Chinese, Portuguese, English and French — a rare profile in Macao's political and business circles of the time. In 1968 she settled in Macao and entered the textile and trading business, becoming one of the most influential operators in Macao's textile sector and chairing the boards of Macao Textiles Limited and the Macau World Trade Center, while also serving as France's honorary consul in Macao. Her bilingual, bicultural background made her one of the few bridging figures between the Chinese community and the Portuguese administration in the late colonial period.
Career
I. Legislator in Portuguese Macao (1976–1999)
In 1976, under the Organic Statute of Macao, the territory held its first direct Legislative Assembly election; Chou ran and won, becoming one of the few ethnic-Chinese women to enter the colonial-era assembly. She was re-elected continuously from 1984 to 1999, serving in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth Portuguese-era assemblies and taking part in the legislative and policy debates of the transition years. From the late 1980s into the 1990s she was also appointed into the handover-preparation machinery — serving on the Macao Basic Law Drafting Committee, as vice-chair of the Basic Law Promotion Association, and as a deputy director of the SAR Preparatory Committee — one of the local figures involved in designing Macao's "one country, two systems" institutions.
II. First President of the SAR Legislative Assembly (1999–2009)
After the Macao SAR was established on 20 December 1999, Chou was elected its first Legislative Assembly President, holding the office across the first, second and third terms until 2009 — roughly a decade in all. As the institution's opening steward she presided over the establishment of the Assembly's rules of procedure, committee system and legislative process in the SAR's early years, and over the scrutiny and passage of its first laws. During her tenure the legislature transformed from a colonial assembly into a Basic Law institution combining directly elected, indirectly elected and appointed seats.
III. National and public roles after office (post-2009)
After leaving the presidency, Chou turned toward national-level and public affairs. She served as a Standing Committee member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and as deputy director of the NPC Standing Committee's Committee for the Macao Basic Law, continuing to work on the interpretation and implementation of the Basic Law in Macao. She has also been a long-standing presence in philanthropy, education and women's affairs, sharing her political and business experiences through personal writing — one of the few senior Macao politicians to document her own public life in print.
Defining Moments
1. A seat across two eras (1976 and 1999)
Chou's political career has two emblematic starting points: a directly elected seat in Portuguese Macao in 1976, and the SAR Legislative Assembly's first presidency in 1999. The first made her a rare ethnic-Chinese woman legislator in the late colonial period; the second placed her in charge of laying the institutional foundations of the SAR legislature at the very opening of "one country, two systems." The continuity between the two moments is a concrete expression of Macao's "smooth transition."
2. Localising and institutionalising the Assembly (1999–2009)
In the SAR's early years the legislature had to rebuild its rules of procedure, committee structure and legislative workflow in short order. As first President, Chou presided over this institution-building phase, steering the Assembly from a colonial body into one operating under the Basic Law. Her emphasis on procedure and member discipline set a baseline framework for the presidents who followed.
Public Character
Public accounts of Chou cluster around a consistent set of descriptors: bilingual, business-bred, an opening steward, a senior legislator. She is among Macao's best-known businesswomen and one of the few local politicians able to move fluently between the Chinese and Portuguese linguistic and cultural worlds. Within the Assembly she is remembered as an institution-builder and presiding officer rather than a policy advocate. As the SAR's first Legislative Assembly President, her historical standing rests mainly on "the opening" and the "smooth transition" — handing over a colonial-era assembly as a functioning Basic Law institution.
Key Achievements
First President of the Macao SAR Legislative Assembly (1999–2009), across three consecutive terms, presiding over the institutional foundation and smooth transition of the SAR legislature
Senior legislator of the Portuguese era: first directly elected in 1976, re-elected continuously across the third through sixth assemblies (1984–1999)
Participated in designing Macao's "one country, two systems" institutions: member of the Basic Law Drafting Committee, vice-chair of the Basic Law Promotion Association, and deputy director of the SAR Preparatory Committee
After leaving office, served as a Standing Committee member of the CPPCC and deputy director of the NPC Standing Committee's Macao Basic Law Committee
One of Macao's most influential businesswomen: chaired the boards of Macao Textiles Limited and the Macau World Trade Center, and served as France's honorary consul in Macao
Received the Grand Lotus Medal of Honour from the Macao SAR Government in 2003
Information compiled from Wikipedia, Baidu Baike, Macao Magazine, and publicly available Macao SAR Legislative Assembly and government records. Cross-check methodology: see docs/PROFILE_RESEARCH_STANDARD.md. If anything is inaccurate or needs updating, please contact us — we aim to respond within 48 hours.
