China Accuses Macao

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 21

China Accuses Macao

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) HONG KONG. December 6.

China today condemned Macao authorities for perpetrating “fresh bloody atrocities” during week-end riots in the tiny Portuguese enclave.

“The Portuguese imperialists in Macao, whose hostility to the Chinese people has reached frenzy, will be held fully responsible for all the serious consequences 'arising from their actions,” the New China News Agency said.

The agency report was the first Chinese comment on the violence which erupted in Macao over protests by Chin-

ese residents against alleged police brutality on Taipa island on November 15. It followed a new five-point demand by these residents to the Macao authorities. Seven Chinese gunboats, their decks lined with stern, unsmiling troops, stood off the South China coast territory yesterday and four of them anchored only a few hundred yards from Macao’s inner harbour. Macao was today reported quiet, but the situation remained tense in the face of the Chinese attitude. The New China News Agency claimed that the Portuguese authorities killed seven and wounded 76 Chinese residents in Macao “in another series of sanguinary atrocities on December 3 and 4.”

First Figures It said: “Reports from Macao indicate that these are only preliminary figures of the number of victims of the attacks by large numbers of armed policemen and soldiers in the two days of deliberate Fascist-type savagery.” The Macao Government made no immediate reaction to the New China News Agency report. But observers said the tone and language of

the report was expected. They noted that Peking had made its attitude known through the agency rather than in a Foreign Ministry Note—which would appear to indicate a wish not to commit China to anything drastic at this stage.