How Macau governs itself under Chinese sovereignty

Who holds sovereignty over Macau since the handover

Macau is a local administrative region of the People's Republic of China that comes directly under the Central People's Government, in the words of Article 12 of its Basic Law. The National People's Congress adopted that law on 31 March 1993 under Article 31 of the Chinese constitution, which provides for special administrative regions, and it took effect at the handover on 20 December 1999. Article 5 states that the socialist system and policies shall not be practised in Macau and that the previous capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years.

Two fields stay with Beijing. Article 13 makes the Central People's Government responsible for foreign affairs, through an office of the Foreign Ministry in Macau, and Article 14 makes it responsible for defence while the region keeps public order. The People's Liberation Army Macao Garrison took up its role on the day of the handover and, under the Garrison Law, does not interfere in local affairs; the regional government may ask the Central People's Government for the garrison's help with social order or disaster relief, and the garrison was deployed for disaster relief for the first time after Typhoon Hato in 2017. A Liaison Office of the Central People's Government also sits in Macau, and the yearbook lists liaison with the Foreign Ministry office and the garrison among its duties.

The last word on the Basic Law itself lies outside Macau. Article 143 gives the power of interpretation to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, which authorises Macau's courts to interpret provisions within the region's autonomy. Article 144 gives the power of amendment to the National People's Congress; a proposal from Macau needs two-thirds of its deputies to the Congress, two-thirds of the Legislative Assembly and the consent of the Chief Executive before the region's delegation may submit it.

What Macau decides for itself

The Macao Yearbook, published by the region's government, describes the principle as Macao people governing Macao with a high degree of autonomy, and adds that a high degree of autonomy does not mean full autonomy. Within that limit the region has executive and legislative power and independent courts with the power of final adjudication. Chinese national law does not generally apply. Macau is a free port and a separate customs territory with its own public finances and border controls, and its taxes do not go to the central authority.

Abroad it acts as Macao, China. It has been a member of the World Trade Organization since 1 January 1995, before the handover, and it signs its own agreements on trade, transport, tourism, culture and sport. By April 2024, 145 countries and regions granted visa-free entry or visas on arrival to holders of the Macao SAR passport, and Macau granted visa-free entry to nationals of 81. Foreign consulates need Beijing's approval under Article 142; by February 2024 four countries kept a consulate general in Macau (Angola, Mozambique, the Philippines and Portugal) and 59 others covered it from Hong Kong.

Article 9 allows Portuguese to be used as an official language beside Chinese in every branch of the region's government. Article 40 keeps in force the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as it applied to Macau before 1999, to be implemented through Macau's own laws.

How the Chief Executive of Macau is chosen

Article 47 provides that the Chief Executive is selected by election or consultation held locally and appointed by the Central People's Government. The term is five years, and no one may serve more than two in a row. The first holder was chosen in May 1999 by a Selection Committee of 200 permanent residents. Annex I of the Basic Law then set an Election Committee of 300 drawn from four groups of sectors, with 100 seats for industry, commerce and finance. IFES records the committee at 400 members for the current arrangement.

The Chief Executive leads the government, signs laws and budgets, nominates the principal officials for appointment by Beijing, appoints seven members of the Legislative Assembly and appoints judges on the recommendation of an independent commission. An Executive Council of seven to eleven members advises on policy and meets at least once a month. Article 52 allows the Chief Executive to dissolve the Legislative Assembly if it twice passes a bill the Chief Executive will not sign, or refuses a budget, after consulting the Executive Council. Article 54 sets the other side of the bargain: a Chief Executive who still refuses to sign a disputed bill after a new assembly passes it again by two-thirds must resign.

How the Legislative Assembly of Macau is put together

Article 68 requires that a majority of the Legislative Assembly be elected, and the method has grown in steps since 1999. The yearbook records each assembly's make-up.

Any permanent resident aged 18 or over who registers may vote for the 14 direct seats. The 12 indirect seats are elected by representatives of registered associations in sectors such as business, labour, the professions, social services and culture. Both are counted by a quotient method set in the electoral law: a list's first candidate receives a quotient equal to the list's votes, the second half of that, the third a quarter, and so on; seats go to the highest quotients across all lists. The Chief Executive names the seven appointed members within 15 days of the final result. The assembly sits in sessions from 16 October to 15 August and works in Chinese and Portuguese.

Before the handover the same mix was already in place. Portugal told the United Nations Human Rights Committee in April 1997 that it had entered a reservation for Macau to the covenant's article on genuine periodic elections, so that members appointed by the governor or chosen by indirect suffrage would not raise doubts under it.

How candidates for Macau's elections are vetted

The assembly elections of 2021 and 2025 were both preceded by disqualifications. In 2021, 21 candidates were barred for allegedly failing to support the Basic Law; Wikipedia's article on Macau records that the electoral commission noted no specific violations. Turnout that year was 42.38%, against 52.34% in 2001, according to Macao News.

The election of 14 September 2025 was the first held after the assembly revised the election law so that only candidates who pass national security vetting may be admitted, as the Chief Executive's statement after the vote put it. Twelve potential candidates were disqualified. Macao News reported 175,272 votes cast in the direct ballot, a turnout of 53.35% of 328,506 registered voters; six lists shared the 14 direct seats, the leading one taking 26.73% of valid votes and three seats. In the indirect election 7,541 voters took part, a turnout of 88.12%.

Human Rights Watch described the grounds for the disqualifications in both years as vague, citing disloyalty to Macau among them. It also recorded that the Court of Final Appeal upheld a ban on the annual vigil for the Tiananmen crackdown in 2021, ruling that the organisers' slogans violated the Chinese constitution and the Basic Law, and that the group that had held the vigil for 30 years disbanded in 2023.

What Article Twenty-Three asked of Macau

Article 23 of the Basic Law requires the region to enact laws on its own to prohibit treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government and theft of state secrets, and to bar foreign political organisations from political activity in Macau and local ones from ties with them. Macau's Law on Safeguarding National Security was first enacted in 2009. It defined seven crimes, Human Rights Watch notes, and under it only acts that violently threatened national security were punishable, according to Macao News.

How Macau widened its security law

The Legislative Assembly passed amendments unanimously on 18 May 2023, and they took effect on 30 May, the day after publication in the Official Gazette. They added 30 articles. Secession and subversion now cover non-violent acts, termed grave illegal means; subversion covers the ruling power of the nation, not only the central government; a new offence of instigating or supporting rebellion was created; theft of state secrets became violation of state secrets; and the law now reaches acts abroad by non-residents as well as residents.

The government's stated reason was that the country faced a more complicated and changing security environment, and it called national security a shared obligation of all Chinese people, including the people of Macau. Officials said the amendments carried safeguards against abuse. The Macau Journalists Association warned in March 2023 that incitement and state secrets were not well defined and that reporting could become a high-risk trade. Analysts quoted by VOA linked the change to the Hong Kong protests of 2019: Eilo Yu Wing-yat of the University of Macau said Beijing saw it as filling loopholes, and Victor Gao of Soochow University said no political system would tolerate secession or rebellion.

Who has been charged under Macau's security law

The law was first used for an arrest on 30 July 2025. Police detained Au Kam San, a former member of the Legislative Assembly elected five times between 2001 and 2021, under Article 13, which makes it an offence to establish links with organisations, groups or individuals outside Macau to carry out activities endangering national security and carries up to ten years. The Judicial Police accused him of long-term contact with overseas anti-China entities, of supplying false and inflammatory information and of disrupting the Chief Executive election of 2024. Article 25 of the amended law provides for detention without bail, and he was held pending investigation.

Human Rights Watch called for his unconditional release. The European Union condemned the arrest in a statement of 2 August 2025 without calling for release, and Portuguese media reported that the Portuguese government was following the case. Au is a Portuguese citizen. The British government's travel advice warns that the law covers activities in and outside Macau and that the police may access social media and private communications to gather evidence.

How Macau's courts keep the Portuguese legal tradition

Macau's law is civil law in the Portuguese tradition, carried over at the handover. The courts run in three tiers (a Court of First Instance, a Court of Appeal and a Court of Final Appeal) beside an Administrative Court. Judges at every level are appointed by the Chief Executive on the recommendation of an independent commission. The President of the Court of Final Appeal must be a Chinese citizen who is a permanent resident. Portugal reported to the United Nations in 1997 that the death penalty for civil crimes had not existed in Macau for 124 years.

The region's courts stand inside the national order. Interpretation of the Basic Law rests with the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and Wikipedia's article on the politics of Macau notes that the Basic Law runs at least until 2049.