ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of a transformation in policing as Macau shifted from Portuguese colonial rule to becoming a Special Administrative Region (SAR) governed by the People's Republic of China (PRC). Macau was originally a fishing village located in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province, Southern China. The chapter addresses the gap in the literature on policing in Asia by examining police attempts to maintain social order during the transition from Portuguese to Chinese governance in the 1990's. As a contribution to the wider literature on colonial and post-colonial policing, the Macau case illustrates that coercive colonial policing is not the only factor contributing to the relative inefficiency of post-colonial social order management. The chapter deals with a discussion of the challenges that remain for police authorities in the Macau SAR (MSAR). It argues that these challenges are a result of the effect of the post-colonial transition on the policing context.
