Sino-Romanian Relations: A Study Based On Two Mainstream Romanian Newspapers

Despite the close ties and active cooperation that used to characterize Sino-Romanian relations before 1989,the last couple of decades after the fall of the Romanian communist regime,have witnessed a constant decline both in the frequency of bilateral contacts and in the amount of information each country receives about each other.The communist ideology that both of the countries used to share prior to the fall of Berlin Wall and the fact that both of them were part of the largest international communist movement created the favorable premises for a close and fruitful bilateral relationship and it functioned as a bridge to connect people from the two countries and to spread a common knowledge with regard to each other among themselves.The exchange of official visits on a regular basis and the constant flow of information along with numerous cultural materials helped raising the awareness about each other.The common people from Romania were,accordingly,familiarized with China and they had various sources to provide information.However,the revolution of 1989 brought a sudden end to the bilateral relation.The change of the political regime favored the creation of new alliances and treaties.Romania started to look towards the Western countries,making a priority form being part of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.China,on the other hand,focused more on the economic development,on industrialization and on raising the prosperity of the country.If we take into consideration all these factors and the fact that both of the countries decided to follow different paths in order to fulfill different priorities and targets,we can understand the reason why the initial years after the `89 revolution are seen as a total interruption in Sino-Romanian relations.The years which followed are considered an attempt to restore the relationship.However,due to the current international circumstances,the focus has changed and the economic aspect has been given priority over the political field.But,the geographical distance,the barrier of language and the cultural differences have contributed still have the potential to hinder the communication and a proper understanding between Romania and China.So,this paper aims at presenting how Sino-Romanian relationship as a whole is presented in the Romanian mass media nowadays.We are looking to discover which aspects are given priority and which topics stir the interest of the Romanian people when it comes to China.In other words,we are trying to present a comprehensive image of China and how it is portrayed in Romania nowadays.In order to fulfil this purpose,we have decided to divide the thesis into three chapters.The first two chapters represent a review of the previous literature,while the third one comprises an analyses based on two mainstream Romanian newspapers.Following this structure,the first chapter is an introduction into the history of Sino-Romanian relations and it will be devoted to tracing the bilateral relations during the period prior to the fall of the communist regime.We will point out the beginning of the bilateral cooperation,the factors,the internal and the external circumstances and conditions which contributed to enhancing the bilateral cooperation.The purpose of this chapter is to create an overview of the relations which is useful in explaining and understanding better the current situation.The second chapter is an introduction to the field of mass media in Romania.It will be focused on presenting the progress and the changes of this field starting from the communist period until current days.We will point out main characteristic of the Romanian press which are meant to work as a background against which we can analyze the articles.Finally,the last chapter of this thesis comprises the analysis of the newspaper articles.We will present an analysis of the newspaper articles published in two Romanian newspapers – Adevarul(The Truth)and Romania Libera(Free Romania).The reasons why we have decided to choose this two particular newspapers are mainly related to their long tradition on the Romanian market and the considerable number of readers.Both of them have been functioning since the end of 19 th century and this brings them credibility in the eyes of the Romanian people.Due to this fact and to the fact that they present reliable information,they are also two of the most popular Romanian newspapers.Regarding the time period of the articles,we have decided to limit it to the period comprised between 2014 and 2016.The reason why we have chosen this particular years is that in 2014,it was the 65 th anniversary of the Sino-Romanian relations and according to the official statements,this date was supposed to open a new chapter in the bilateral relations.The last part of the paper represents our conclusion which will comprise our findings,the outcome and results of the analysis.Within this part we will draw a conclusion about the image of China in the Romanian newspapers,as well as the aspects covered by the newspapers regarding the Sino-Romanian relations.We will also focus on pointing out the main topics which are published in the two newspapers and the parts which are not given much priority.