Romanian Leader Asks China’s Help in Saving Communism

BEIJING —  Romania’s hard-line President Nicolae Ceausescu, increasingly isolated as reforms sweep Eastern Europe, has made a direct plea to Beijing to join his country’s crusade to preserve communism.

In an interview published in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily on Saturday, Ceausescu said: “We are extremely concerned about developing cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party and people.

“The two countries must make initiatives to resolve all kinds of current difficulties that would be beneficial to the development of socialism in the two nations and other countries.”

Ceausescu did not spell out the initiatives but said they would not mean interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.

“Now more than ever before there is a greater need for cooperation between communist parties and socialist countries,” Ceausescu said.