Series
On 20 December 1999, Macau ended over four centuries of Portuguese administration and returned to China as a Special Administrative Region. This series focuses on the key figures around that historic turning point — from Vasco Rocha Vieira, the last Governor, to Edmund Ho, the SAR's first Chief Executive, and Susana Chou, its first Legislative Assembly president.
Vasco Rocha Vieira was the last Portuguese Governor of Macau (1991–1999), overseeing the transition before the handover and, at the ceremony of 20 December 1999, completing the historic transfer of Macau on behalf of Portugal.
Edmund Ho Hau Wah
The 1st Chief Executive of the Macao SAR (1999–2009). Son of Ho Yin and former chairman of Tai Fung Bank. His decade defined post-handover Macao through the 2002 liberalisation of gaming, explosive growth, and the credibility of "One Country, Two Systems" in the territory.
Susana Chou
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.
On the day of the handover, the Macau Special Administrative Region was established. Edmund Ho became the first Chief Executive, opening the new chapter of "one country, two systems, Macau people governing Macau"; Susana Chou became the first Legislative Assembly president, setting the legislature in motion; and Ho Iat Seng, who would later become the fourth Chief Executive, was already engaged in public affairs around the handover, helping build the SAR's institutions.
A smooth handover also rested on years of groundwork by patriotic business leaders. Ma Man Kei was a leading figure of Macau's business community and patriotic camp, long involved in national affairs and the transition; and the gambling king Stanley Ho, through his economic weight, was an important pillar of Macau's stability around the handover. In a neutral historical register, this series presents the figures around that turning point.
Ma Man Kei
Vice-Chairman of the CPPCC and lifetime president of the Macau Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Across seven decades in business and politics, he was one of the defining patriotic merchants of the Macau handover era.
Stanley Ho
Macau's "King of Gambling" and the founder of its modern casino industry. Held the gaming monopoly from 1962, shaping the city's modern economy for four decades.
