What the Romanian deputy who angered the Chinese Embassy answers: In a democracy, parliamentarians do not ask for the approval of a foreign power
The PNL MP Alexandru Muraru responds, on Saturday, to the Chinese Embassy in Bucharest, which accused him of “blatantly interfering in the internal affairs of China, supporting the independence of Taiwan”, stating that, in a democracy, parliamentarians do not ask for the approval of a foreign power in order to meet with whoever they deem necessary and to visit the places they deem relevant.
“I find out that the Chinese Embassy in Romania publishes a position (violating the Romanian language) regarding the visit I recently had to Taiwan. In a democracy, parliamentarians do not ask for the approval of a foreign power to meet with whom they consider necessary and to visit the places they consider relevant for their public activity. The people's elected representatives answer to the citizens who sent them to Parliament, not to the embassies of authoritarian states,” says Alexandru Muraru in a post on Facebook.
Muraru points out that “exactly here is the fundamental difference between a democracy and a regime led by a single party”. “In Romania, parliamentarians do not live under censorship and are not obliged to follow the ideological line of a party-state. Freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of movement are not privileges granted by the government, but fundamental rights”, he emphasizes.
The liberal deputy also states that the spokesperson of the Chinese embassy makes an indirect allusion to Transylvania. “I have to bring him back to reality. Romania has no border disputes with neighboring states, unlike China, which creates artificial outposts to claim territories and sow division and chaos in its vicinity. Perhaps the representatives of the regime in Beijing should remember the fact that these days the world commemorated 37 years since the Tiananmen Square massacre.”
In this regard, Alexandru Muraru recalls that the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said “something that neither propaganda nor censorship can change: “On June 4, the world marks 37 years since the Chinese Communist Party ordered its troops to attack thousands of peaceful demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square. Chinese students, workers and other civilians who lost their lives had gathered to exercise their natural rights and demand democratic reforms and accountability for corruption. We remember their lives and honor their legacy. No amount of censorship can erase the past. Those who sacrificed themselves to defend their inalienable rights to free speech and peaceful assembly will one day be vindicated.”
“This is the difference between the free world and authoritarian regimes. In democracies we commemorate the people who fought for freedom. In authoritarian regimes, their memory is censored,” explains Muraru.
“Romania's foreign policy will be decided in Bucharest, not in the headquarters of any foreign embassy”
The parliamentarian also says that the Chinese Embassy should also understand another thing, that “Romania has known communism, it has known terror, censorship, international isolation, poverty and economic bankruptcy produced by dictatorship and that is precisely why Romanians chose freedom, pluralism and belonging to the democratic world in 1989. Romania will never be a communist country again”.
“For this reason, attempts to export ideological lessons to Romanian society are doomed to failure. They do not convince anyone and only deepen the international isolation of a regime that continues to treat freedom as a threat. The reality is that the repression exercised by the Chinese Communist Party remains one of the most extensive in the world. International organizations, democratic governments and official reports have documented the persecution of dissidents, independent journalists, activists for human rights and ethnic and religious minorities. According to the assessments presented by the American authorities and numerous international organizations, over a million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities were detained in “re-education” centers, and some estimates indicate significantly higher numbers in certain periods”, emphasizes Alexandru Muraru.
He mentions that in 2024 he was, along with two other Romanian parliamentarians, the target of a cyberespionage operation attributed to a group of hackers supported by the Chinese government, according to information made public by Western authorities.
“It is not the first time that representatives of the Chinese state try to intimidate or monitor critical voices in democratic parliaments. Romania is a European democracy. Romanian parliamentarians will exercise their mandate without the approval of Beijing, and Romania's foreign policy will be decided in Bucharest, not in the headquarters of any foreign embassy,” insists Muraru.
In a statement posted on the Facebook page of the diplomatic representation, on Friday, the spokesperson of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Romania stated that the Romanian deputy Alexandru Muraru “blatantly intervened in China's internal affairs, supporting the “independence of Taiwan”, following a visit to the region, which “raises questions” whether he “really represents Romania's interests”.
What is the current MFA position on Taiwan
On the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), currently led by Oana Țoiu (USR), there is talk about “Romania's special relationship with the Chinese Republic”.
“Romania maintains its constant position of recognizing one China, Taiwan being an integral part of it”, it is stated on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where there is also a review of the important moments in the diplomatic relations between Romania and China.
Taiwan has repeatedly stated that it will not give up its sovereignty or make concessions on freedom and democracy.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory, despite vocal objections from the government in Taipei, and has never given up on the idea of using force to bring the island under Beijing's control.
