Acknowledgement The editors would like to convey our gratitude to the individual authors for their invaluable contributions and to all the reviewers for their patience, insightful comments and suggestions. As this publication is the first of a series of publications on China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries edited by the Department of Governance and Public Administration – Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Macau (China), we would like to thank Professor Brigida Brito (Autonoma University of Lisbon, Portugal), for extending this invitation to edit this especial issue and also the following project facilitators: André Silva, (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil); Carlos Schonerwald (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil); Carmen Amado Mendes (Macau Scientific and Cultural Center, Lisbon, Portugal); Daniel Morales Ruvalcaba (Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China); Fernanda Ilhéu (Lisbon School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Portugal); João Simões (City University of Macau, China); Luís Bernardino (Autonoma University of Lisbon, Portugal); Luis Pires (University of Macau, China); Paulo Duarte (University of Minho, Portugal); Paulo Gonçalves (Independent Researcher, Portugal); Pedro Steenhagen (Fudan University, China); Rodrigo Flanklin (University Centre of the South of Minas (UNIS-MG), Brazil): and Vera Borges (City University of Macau, China).