Romania in China's People's Daily: eighty years of Romania–China relations in 16,793 articles

1946–1949

The first report devoted to Romania was a death sentence#

A paper called the People's Daily first appeared on 15 May 1946 in the Communist-held region of north China, three years before the Communists won the civil war; in 1948 it merged with another regional paper, and in August 1949 it became the organ of the party's Central Committee. On 19 May a survey of the world's communist parties gave Romania one sentence. On 24 May, on the front page, a report of 52 characters announced that Ion Antonescu, Romania's wartime “fascist dictator”, had been sentenced to death. On 8 June another, of 53 characters: Antonescu had been shot.

204024 May 1946 Antonescu sentenced5 Oct 1949 diplomatic relations19461947194819491950

On 1 October 1949 the People's Republic of China was proclaimed. Two days later in Bucharest the foreign minister, Ana Pauker, signed the note by which Romania decided to establish diplomatic relations. Zhou Enlai, the new China's premier and foreign minister, replied on 5 October, and on 6 October the paper printed both texts on its front page. Romania was the third state to take the step, after the Soviet Union and Bulgaria.^source

罗马尼亚人民共和国政府在研究了中国中央人民政府十月一日的公告中的建议之后，已决定建立罗马尼亚人民共和国与中华人民共和国之间的外交关系。“Having studied the proposal in the proclamation of 1 October by the Central People's Government of China, the Government of the Romanian People's Republic has decided to establish diplomatic relations between the Romanian People's Republic and the People's Republic of China.”Ana Pauker's note of 3 October 1949, as printed in the People's Daily on 6 October 1949, page 1. Translated from the Chinese.

Three days later came a report from Shanghai: the president of the city's Romanian association said that relations with the new China were “the wish of the Romanian people”. In 1949 enough Romanians lived in Shanghai to have an association.

On the first envoy from the Romanian lands to reach Beijing, almost three centuries earlier: Nicolae Milescu at the court of the Kangxi emperor, 1675–1678.

1950–1959

One brother among several#

In the 1950s Romania appears in roughly 20 articles in a thousand: delegations, telegrams for 23 August (Romania's national day under communism), harvests, oil rigs. The word that goes with it is 兄弟, “brother”: in 1959 it is in 135 articles about Romania. Among the eight socialist states of Eastern Europe, Romania ranks fourth, fifth or sixth; Poland and Czechoslovakia get more space in almost every year.

204060Dec 1950 five studentsAug 1953 first dubbed filmOct 1954 the PRC's fifth anniversaryApr 1958 government delegation1950195119521953195419551956195719581959

On 30 November 1950 five Romanian students arrived in Beijing by train. The paper names them on its front page and says that more than 200 people met them at the station and that they would study at Tsinghua University. Two of them, Romulus Budura and Anna Szász (later Budura), recalled in 2015 the day, 4 December 1950, when they walked through the university gate; they stayed in China for six years.^source Budura later edited the volumes of diplomatic documents from which the history of these relations is now written. Another, Toni Radian, led the first Chinese-language section at the University of Bucharest from 1956.

In August 1953 the first Romanian film dubbed into Chinese reached Chinese cinemas: “Viața învinge” (为了美好的生活, “Life Triumphs”), about a metallurgist who defeats American spies. The Romanian Film Week was held in 20 Chinese cities, starting on 30 December 1954; according to the researchers Tan Hui and He Yuan, the 95 screenings in Beijing drew 57,900 spectators.^source

1960–1966

When Moscow and Beijing quarrel, Romania moves up to second place#

In the years of the split between China and the Soviet Union, the paper writes less and less about Eastern Europe. Between 1960 and 1966 Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and East Germany, which stayed with Moscow, drop from several hundred articles a year to a few dozen. Albania, which chose Beijing, passes 500. Romania falls too, until 1963.

204060Apr 1961 table tennis worldsMar 1964 Maurer meets MaoMar 1965 Gheorghiu-Dej diesJune 1966 Zhou Enlai in Romania1960196119621963196419651966

In March 1964 a party delegation led by the prime minister, Ion Gheorghe Maurer, comes to Beijing proposing that the polemic between the two great parties should stop. Nicolae Ceaușescu is a member. On 10 March Mao Zedong receives them. The Chinese leaders decline, and a written appeal sent from Bucharest on 25 March gets no reply. The historian Mihai Croitor argues, from the transcripts, that the talks dealt little with mediation and much with bringing Bucharest and Beijing closer.^source From that year to 1966 Romania is the second East European country in the paper, after Albania.

On 19 March 1965 Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Romania's communist leader, dies. The paper gives him its front page for several days, and Zhou Enlai leads the Chinese delegation to the funeral. In June 1966 Zhou returns for eight days: Bucharest, Constanța on the Black Sea, Craiova, Slatina, Pitești. The paper writes of “more than a hundred thousand people” in the streets of Constanța.

It does not write about the disagreement that ran through the talks. Zhou wanted to condemn Moscow's policy in public; Ceaușescu asked him not to. The historian Ioan Scurtu, who quotes the transcripts published by Romulus Budura, writes that the rally in Bucharest's Palace Hall, announced for 5pm, began at 9.20pm; the People's Daily puts the leaders' entrance “shortly after seven in the evening”. Neither account reports any mention of the dispute with Moscow at the rally.^source

1967–1969

The year with 22 articles#

When Zhou came to Romania the Cultural Revolution had already been launched in China. For the rest of 1966 Romania keeps about a dozen articles a month; in 1967 it falls to a handful, and in July 1967 to none. Romania appears in 59 articles in 1967, 22 in 1968 and 40 in 1969. In 1968 it is the last of the eight states; Albania has 475.

2040June 1966 Zhou Enlai in Romania23 Aug 1968 Zhou's speechSept 1969 Maurer in BeijingMay–June 1970 the floods19661967196819691970

It was in 1968 that the Chinese gesture best remembered in Romania was made. On the night of 20–21 August the troops of the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact states entered Czechoslovakia; the next day Ceaușescu condemned the invasion from the balcony of the party headquarters in Bucharest. On 23 August Zhou Enlai came to the Romanian embassy's national day reception in Beijing. The ambassador had planned no speeches; the evening before, the Chinese side had let him know that the premier wished to speak:

罗马尼亚目前正面临着遭受外来的干涉和侵略的危险。罗马尼亚政府正在动员人民为捍卫自己的独立和主权而斗争。在无产阶级文化大革命中锻炼得更加坚强的中国人民支持你们。“Rumania is now facing the danger of foreign intervention and aggression. The Rumanian Government is mobilizing the people to wage struggles in defence of their independence and sovereignty. The Chinese people, who have grown even stronger through the tempering of the great proletarian cultural revolution, support you.”Zhou Enlai, 23 August 1968; People's Daily, 24 August 1968, page 1. English as published in Peking in 1968 by the Foreign Languages Press.

The ambassador, Aurel Duma, cabled Bucharest that the diplomats of the states that had sent troops walked out at the first words about “the Soviet revisionist clique”, and that Zhou, in private, promised cannon if Romania needed them.^source The paper printed the speech the next day on its front page. Then it fell silent again: by the end of the year Romania had appeared in 10 more articles.

In August 1969 the American president, Richard Nixon, came to Bucharest. He told Ceaușescu that the United States would not join a bloc to “fence off” China and that it would welcome Romania as a go-between.^source In 1969 no People's Daily article that names Romania or Bucharest mentions the visit; one from December 1973, on Ceaușescu's trip to Washington, does. In September Maurer stopped twice in Beijing, on his way to Ho Chi Minh's funeral and on his way back, and passed Nixon's wish on to Zhou. Zhou's answer was cool: the Americans had taken Taiwan, and the debt was theirs.^source The paper notes only that “the two sides had a friendly conversation”.

1970–1972

A loan in the paper and a message that was not printed#

In May 1970 floods cover a large part of Romania. Zhou Enlai sends a telegram, the Chinese Red Cross gives 500,000 yuan, and on 29 June a protocol on grant aid is signed in Beijing. The paper lists what is going to Romania: cotton, cotton yarn, coke, frozen pork, soya beans, frozen fish and salted fish, milk powder, egg powder, pigskins and goatskins.

20406080100May–June 1970 the floodsJune 1971 Ceaușescu in ChinaOct 1971 Romanian exhibition in Beijing197019711972

In October 1970, in Washington, Nixon tells Ceaușescu that his role as a peacemaker is “very useful” in relations with China.^source In November the deputy premier Gheorghe Rădulescu comes to Beijing. The paper reports his talk with Zhou on its front page and, on 26 November, the signing of a long-term, interest-free Chinese loan. Something else goes unprinted: Zhou gives Rădulescu an answer for Nixon. The Romanian ambassador, Corneliu Bogdan, delivers it to Henry Kissinger at the White House on 11 January 1971:

“The communication from the U.S. President is not new. There is only one outstanding issue between us—the U.S. occupation of Taiwan. […] If the U.S. has a desire to settle the issue and a proposal for its solution, the PRC will be prepared to receive a U.S. special envoy in Peking.”Zhou Enlai's message as recorded by Henry Kissinger in his memorandum to Nixon of 12 January 1971 (Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, vol. XVII, doc. 102).

An almost identical message had reached Washington a month earlier through the president of Pakistan. Kissinger wrote to Nixon that the message the Romanians brought confirmed the Pakistani one.^source Historians speak of a “Romanian channel” and a Pakistani one. Between August 1969 and January 1971 Romania twice carried Nixon's messages to Beijing and twice came back with an answer: in December 1969 nothing specific, in January 1971 the invitation of a special envoy. Kissinger's secret visit to Beijing in July 1971 was prepared through Pakistan.^source

From 1 to 9 June 1971 Ceaușescu visits China. June 1971 is the month with the highest share of all eighty years: 102 of the month's 868 articles name Romania. On 3 June Mao receives him, with Lin Biao, his designated successor, at his side; three months later Lin died in a plane crash in Mongolia. Among the members of the delegation the paper names Ion Iliescu, the future president.

On his return Ceaușescu launched the “July Theses”, which tightened ideological control. That the theses were brought home from China is a widespread idea which historians treat with caution. Cezar Stanciu shows from party transcripts that the first steps had been taken as early as the autumn of 1968; he judges it more plausible that the change was determined by Romania's relations with Moscow and that the Asian journey only hastened it, even though the methods chosen were partly inspired by the Chinese model.^source

1972–1979

Four years in first place#

From 1970 to 1978 the paper writes about Romania five times as much as, on average, about each of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland. In five of those years Romania alone has more articles than Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland put together. From 1975 to 1978 it is first of all eight, ahead of Albania.

20406080100Aug 1974 thirtieth anniversaryMar 1977 the earthquakeMay 1978 Ceaușescu in ChinaAug 1978 Hua in Bucharest19721973197419751976197719781979

The historian Cezar Stanciu sums up Bucharest's policy in those years: Romania challenged Moscow's domination of the Soviet bloc, kept a neutral stance in the Sino-Soviet split and cultivated good relations with China.^source Albania, the ally of the 1960s, broke with China after Mao's death: from 243 articles in 1976 it went to 112 in 1977 and 16 in 1978.

The peak year is 1978. In May Ceaușescu is in China again. On 16 August Hua Guofeng, Mao's successor, lands in Bucharest; it is his first journey to Europe, and the paper writes of “nearly 200,000 people” in the streets. On 18 August the People's Daily prints 20 articles naming Romania, the most on any single day: besides the news of the visit, a page of Romanian literature, an article on the Carpathians, one on Romania's salt mines and one on a “library on wheels”.

After 1978 China opens to the United States, Japan and western Europe. Articles naming Romania fall from 602 in 1978 to 335 in 1979 and 310 in 1980.

1979–1989

Gymnastics, decorations and an execution in 90 characters#

Between 1979 and 1989 Romania's share falls from 19.1 to 6.5 articles per thousand; in number, from 335 to 196, while the corpus grows from 17,554 to 30,049 articles a year. The subjects change too: in 1981 the word for gymnastics (体操) appears in 36 articles naming Romania. The visits go on: Ceaușescu comes to China in 1982, 1985 and 1988. In August 1984, at the fortieth anniversary of 23 August, China's president, Li Xiannian, is in Bucharest, and Ceaușescu decorates Deng Xiaoping by decree.

20401981 gymnasticsAug 1984 Li Xiannian in BucharestOct 1988 the last visit27 Dec 1989 90 characters197919801981198219831984198519861987198819891990

In November 1989, two weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Qiao Shi of the Chinese party leadership attends the Romanian Communist Party's 14th congress, and Jiang Zemin congratulates Ceaușescu on his re-election. On 18 November the paper publishes an interview with Ceaușescu. Less than six weeks later, on 27 December, on page four, comes this report:

新华社布加勒斯特12月25日电　罗马尼亚电视台当地时间25日20时30分（北京时间26日凌晨2时30分）宣布，罗特别军事法庭25日判处尼·齐奥塞斯库和埃列娜·齐奥塞斯库死刑并已执行。“Xinhua, Bucharest, 25 December. Romanian television announced at 8.30pm local time on the 25th (2.30am on the 26th, Beijing time) that a special military tribunal had on the 25th sentenced N. Ceaușescu and Elena Ceaușescu to death and that the sentence had been carried out.”The whole report, minus its headline: People's Daily, 27 December 1989, page 4. Translated from the Chinese.

In the same issue, on the front page, under the headline “China respects the choice of the Romanian people”, a Chinese deputy foreign minister receives the Romanian ambassador and announces Red Cross aid. The issue of 28 December prints the telegrams of congratulation that China's president and premier had sent the day before to the new leaders in Bucharest. The reports of those days contain no comment on the man whose name had stood, in 1978 alone, in 219 of the articles naming Romania.

Those days, hour by hour (in Romanian): December 1989.

1990–2012

Fewer words, more goods#

Ion Iliescu, whom the paper had named in the delegation of 1971, comes to Beijing as president in January 1991. In July 1994 the premier, Li Peng, arrives in Constanța and Bucharest in the very days in which Romania plays its World Cup quarter-final; the issue that announces his arrival also carries an article headed “Hagi, soul of the Danube”, about Romania's captain, Gheorghe Hagi. That year the word for football (足球) appears in 38 articles naming Romania.

20Jan 1991 Iliescu in BeijingJuly 1994 Li Peng and the World CupJune 2004 Hu JintaoAug 2008 the Beijing Games199019921994199619982000200220042006200820102012

In July 1995, receiving the Romanian prime minister Nicolae Văcăroiu in Beijing, President Jiang Zemin says that in the early 1970s he worked in Romania for a time as head of a group of specialists sent by China's machine-building ministry. In 1996 he comes to Bucharest on a state visit. In June 2004 Hu Jintao comes, and the two countries announce a “comprehensive friendly and cooperative partnership”. Beside Romania's name the paper writes 北约 and 欧盟 more and more often: NATO, which Romania joins in 2004, and the European Union, which it joins in 2007.

The connection moves from the newspaper to the markets. In the 1990s thousands of Chinese traders settle in Bucharest. Imports from China, 1.3% of Romania's total in 2000, reach 5.5% in 2010.

In detail: Dragonul Roșu, Bucharest's Chinese wholesale city and the chronology of relations since 1949.

2013–2025

One article in a thousand#

In November 2013 Bucharest hosts the meeting of the heads of government of China and 16 states of central and eastern Europe. The premier, Li Keqiang, comes, and a report of 123 characters announces that a Chinese company has signed an agreement to develop nuclear power in Romania. The whole year yields 59 articles.

Nov 2013 the Bucharest summit2019 seventy yearsMay 2025 a telegram20102012201420162018202020222024

Reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavodă, Romania's nuclear plant on the Danube, were not built with China General Nuclear as a partner: the memorandum of 2015 was abandoned in 2020 at the request of the Romanian state. A law of 2021 made suppliers of 5G equipment subject to government authorisation; in February 2024 Huawei's application was refused. In the articles naming Romania the paper mentions neither decision. It simply writes less. In 2023 there are 22 articles, the lowest share of all eighty years: as many articles as in 1968, out of nearly three times as many. In 2024 Hungary has 189 articles and Serbia 177; Romania, 35.

On 24 May 2025, on the front page, 226 characters: the report that on 22 May Xi Jinping had congratulated the president-elect, Nicușor Dan. On a single day in August 1978 the paper had printed 20 articles.