During my research for an opening speech at a conference in Hong Kong I discovered the first European ever to set foot in China was a Portuguese trader, named Jorge Álvares, as far back as 1513. All of us Portuguese have an interest in Macau, as it was Portuguese territory until 1999, when it was returned to China. A territory located on the Pearl River estuary, it came to the hands of the Portuguese because they began trading there and then …
