Why is Macao's return more than 20 years late?

This should start with the carnation revolution in Portugal.

Carnation Revolution (Portuguese: Revolution? 0? 4? 0? 0o dos Cravos) refers to the leftist military coup in Lisbon, Portugal on April 25th, 1974.

The Carnation Revolution ended the longest dictatorship in Western Europe in the 20th century under salazar, which triggered a two-year social unrest "transition period" and finally realized Portuguese freedom and democratization.

The new government renounced all colonies. So he proposed to return Macau to China.

At that time, during the hostile period between China and the Soviet Union, China regarded Portugal as a follower of the Soviet Union, and the proposal of "returning" Macao put forward by the new Portuguese government under its control was regarded as ulterior motives by the China government.

According to the "decolonization" policy of Gonsalves government, Portugal is willing to give up all overseas colonies and recognize the independent rights of all Portuguese colonies.

If the China government recognizes Macao as a "colony", then naturally, Macao can also obtain "freedom" according to its "decolonization" policy. At that time, the government didn't know what to do with Hong Kong after it recovered Macao. So diplomatic occasions all over the world staged a farce in which Portuguese diplomats pursued China diplomats and China diplomats hid!

1February 8, 979 China and Portugal formally established diplomatic relations. The agreement reached by the two sides pointed out that Macao is the territory of China, which is currently administered by the Portuguese government, and the time and details of the return will be resolved through negotiations between the two governments at an appropriate time.

So Macao's return is 24 years late!