Report by the Department of Soviet and Eastern European Affairs, Chinese Foreign Ministry, 'Recent Situation in Romania'

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Recent Situation in Romania

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1. Recently, various sources have reported that the conflict between Romania and the Soviet Union over the issue of CMEA has intensified and the relationship between them has worsened. It is said that the Soviet Union asked Romania to give up the development of industry and hand over the industry of tractors, automobiles, chemicals, and other departments to Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, etc., and instead focus on agriculture in order to supply the Eastern European countries with agricultural products. Romania disagreed. From February 15-21, the Executive Committee of the Mutual Economic Association held a meeting at the deputy prime minister level in Moscow. The Soviet Union proposed to establish a supranational organization to unify the plans of the countries and lead the economic work of member countries; Romania believed that this would damage its sovereignty and firmly opposed it. Romania also does not agree with adopting the principle of majority voting. When Khrushchev met with representatives of various countries, he asked everyone to financially support East Germany and rocket development. He expressed dissatisfaction with Romania’s emphasis on sovereignty and threatened that the Soviet Union would not engage in charity and would not give anything for free. The meeting did not reach an agreement. After the meeting, Khrushchev wrote another letter to Gheorghiu-Dej, insisting that Romania should not develop industry but rather engage in agriculture first. Khrushchev invited Dej to visit the Soviet Union, but Dej refused the invitation. From March 5-8, the Romanian Party held a Central Plenary Session to discuss the issue of the CMEA. After debate, it was decided to stick to the Romanian position. The communique of the plenary meeting said: "The plenary meeting unanimously agreed with the instructions given by the party and state leaders to the representatives of the Romanian People's Republic and the activities of the representatives. The plenary reaffirmed its full agreement with the ‘Basic Principles of the Socialist International Division of Labour’ adopted at the June 1962 meeting of the representatives of the Communist and Workers' Parties of the member countries of the Committee for Mutual Economic Assistance. This principle, which is based on the Moscow Declaration in 1960, agreed that the coordination of economic plans in each country under the spirit of sovereignty recognition, complete equality of rights, and mutual assistance, is the major way for the smooth development of the socialist international division of labor. The plenum held that these basic principles have fully proved their effectiveness and will become the basis for the development of each socialist country and in the future will gradually reduce…[page missing]

…A Romania Albanian who previously distributed Albanian materials was also released recently. When he was released, the municipal party committee secretary spoke to the person, "I have read the materials you sent, and there is no problem with them; you can go." Economically, the two countries reached an agreement on trade, which was signed on March 7. The trade volume between the two countries has grown significantly. The Minister of Foreign Trade of Romania attended the signing ceremony, and newspapers and magazines prominently published this news. Last year, only low-level officials participated in the ceremony, and the newspapers only issued brief messages. According to the Albanian Ambassador, on the issue of economic negotiations between Romania and Albania, the Romanian Foreign Trade Minister ordered the negotiation to be concluded within five days and asked [Romanian officials] to meet Albanian’s needs. He also ordered to deliver goods as soon as possible and supply the linoleum paper, originally intended to export to the Soviet Union, to Albania instead. In November last year, we proposed to transfer 1,000 tons of No. 18 engine oil, which we imported from Romania to Albania. On March 7, Romania told us that they agreed to this decision. These friendly remarks by Romania were made after the Central Plenary Session in March, which is related to the situation of the plenary session. 

2. Although Romania followed the Soviet Union in criticizing China, they were not very active, and have been more reluctant recently. After the [East] German Party Congress, Romanian newspapers did not publish any articles attacking or insinuating our country, nor did they report such articles and remarks from other countries. Recently, the two parties exchanged letters between China and the Soviet Union. Unlike other Eastern European countries, which only published TASS news, Romania published both Xinhua and TASS articles. Regarding the letter of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on March 30, Romania only published the summary" and did not write any supporting article. Romanian Ambassador to China Gheorghiu Dumitru said: The attitude [of other parties] towards the head of the CCP delegation at the German Socialist Party Congress was wrong. This is a phenomenon never seen before in the international communist movement. It is intolerable to warmly welcome the representative of Yugoslavia at the same time [when the Chinese delegation was attacked]." The director of the library of the Academy of Sciences of the Romanian Academy of Sciences, who was the ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1947 to 1949, Gheorghe Vladescu-Racoasa, said to our student in Romania: "The speech that Dej made at the Bucharest conference is wrong. The content is produced by Khrushchev, and Dej has no other options but to deliver it." According to a colonel officer of the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs, when the Romanian Party sent its letter to the Soviet Communist Party, "they protested against the Soviet Union's actions towards China and Albania. The party's line has been determined, [and they decided] not to follow the Soviet Line. There are many people in the Party Central Committee who support China.” A Yugoslav exile who works at the “Saiwen” [sic] Publishing House revealed that a friend who is in contact with the Romanian Party Central Committee told him: It is okay if you go to the Chinese embassy; the Romanian Central Committee also supports the Chinese side. It is much safer to talk about these materials (referring to our anti-revisionist articles) than to talk about "Long Live Leninism." This year, the China-Romania trade negotiation has been successfully concluded, and the trade volume has increased by ten-percent compared with last year. On March 8, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Trade met with Ambassador Xu and our trade delegation. He has repeatedly expressed that the Romanian party and state leaders are concerned about the development of trade between the two countries and emphasized that both countries follow the principles of Marxism-Leninism and should develop mutual relations. Afterward, the Romanian Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade proposed to us to exchange hard currency for hard currency. He also expressed the hope that this year will be a turning point in the trade between the two countries and apologized for the cold reception of our delegation in the early stages. On April 9, the Romanian Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade made a toast at the banquet of Ambassador Xu, saying: the two parties of Romania and China are Marxist-Leninist, and fully adhere to the 1960 Moscow Statement. This year's trade volume between the two countries increased by ten-percent compared to last year, marking a turning point in the trade relations between the two countries. [I] hope that bilateral trade relations will continue to consolidate and develope. Under the leadership of the two parties, the people of Romania and China have made great achievements in socialist construction." The Romanian Ambassador to China Gheorghiu Dumitru said after visiting Taiyuan, Yan'an, Xi'an, Luoyang and other places: “what I saw during the visit are achievements made by the Chinese people in socialist construction. This showed that the policies implemented by the Chinese Communist Party are correct." However, on the Sino-Indian border issue, recent Romanian newspapers still showed favoritism towards India. 

3. Regarding Soviet-Yugoslav collusion and the recognition of Yugoslavia as a socialist country, Romania still has reservations. In public, Romania neither recognized nor refuted Yugoslavia as a socialist country. When Romanian officials contact others, they try to avoid this as much as possible. However, in practice, Romania still treated Yugoslavia as a capitalist country. The Socialist news section of the Romanian newspaper never published news of Yugoslavia. On March 26, the Romanian Foreign Minister told the Ambassador of Albania that Romania followed the rules of the Moscow Statement. There are two factors of Romanian practice on this issue. On the one hand, because Dej was a contributor to the 1948 Cominform report on the Yugoslavia, he would not deny the 1948 resolution in order to protect his prestige. On the other hand, Romania was afraid of angering Khrushchev if they publicly denied [Yugoslavia as a socialist country]. The Romanian ambassador to China, Giorgiou, also said, "…”

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[Translator’s note: several pages missing from available copy]

…On April 17, the Executive Committee of the Mutual Economic Cooperation will hold another meeting at the deputy prime minister level in Moscow. There are rumors that a meeting of the prime secretaries will be held in May, and it is expected that the problem may become clearer. But no matter what happens, the situation is in our favor. We should pay close attention to the changes and development of the situation and take appropriate countermeasures to make it change in a more favorable direction towards us.

Department of Soviet and Eastern European Affairs

[Chinese] Ministry of Foreign Affairs

18 April 1963

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