Published on : 03/10/2024

On October 3, 1949, China established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

On October 1, the People's Republic of China (PRC) was officially founded. The next day, Andrei Gromyko, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, was authorised by the Soviet government to send a telegram indicating that the Soviet government had decided to establish diplomatic relations with China and exchange ambassadors.

In fact, as early as March of that year, Liu Shaoqi (劉少奇), representing Mao Zedong (毛澤東), secretly visited the Soviet Union with a delegation and had talks with Stalin.

During their talks, the impending establishment of New China and its potential international recognition were mentioned. Stalin explicitly expressed his support.

After receiving the telegram from the Soviet Union, Zhou Enlai (周恩來), who had just become China's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, immediately replied on October 3, "The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China warmly welcomes the immediate establishment of diplomatic relations between the PRC and the Soviet Union, and the exchange of ambassadors."

On the same day, the Soviet Union appointed senior diplomat Nikolai Roshchin as the first ambassador to China.

Subsequently, the country also assigned Xinhua News Agency's permanent Moscow correspondent, Ge Baoquan (戈寶權), as the Acting Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in the Soviet Union, and immediately began to establish the embassy.