Chinese of Romania
Encyclopedia
The Chinese of Romania are one of the smaller minorities of Romania
Minorities of Romania
Officially, 10.5% of Romania's population is represented by minorities . The principal minorities in Romania are Hungarians and Roma people, with a declining German population and smaller numbers of Poles in Bucovina...

.

Migration history

China and Romania have a history of several decades of economic and cultural exchanges as part of the Communist bloc. Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin is a former Chinese politician, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2005...

 lived in Romania for some time and speaks the language. However, mass Chinese migration to the country only began in the 1980s and 1990s, consisting mostly of independent traders. Later, in the early 2000s, as Romania began to suffer labour shortages due to out-migration of its people to western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

, they imported migrant worker
Migrant worker
The term migrant worker has different official meanings and connotations in different parts of the world. The United Nations' definition is broad, including any people working outside of their home country...

s from China as a result.

According to the 2002 census, there were only 2,249 Chinese in Romania. However, popular media give much higher estimates. An International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...

report in 1998 stated that there were between 10,000 and 40,000 Chinese in the country. A later estimate published by China's official Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua News Agency
The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...

 in 2004 also claimed there were as many as 10,000. Romanian newspaper Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...

stated in 2005 that there were around 4,000 or 5,000, which it also claims is a decrease from the 1990s when there might have been 20,000. Most are men originating from Wenzhou
Wenzhou
Wenzhou is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. The area under its jurisdiction, which includes two satellite cities and six counties, had a population of 9,122,100 as of 2010....

 and Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...

. Some migrant workers have also come from Jilin
Jilin
Jilin , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...

 and Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...

. They are concentrated in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

, especially in the Colentina
Colentina, Bucharest
Colentina is one of the main neighborhoods in Bucharest's 2nd district located on the north-east of the city. A local folk etymology says that the name is derived from "colea-n-tină" , this being the answer given by a spătar to Matei Basarab, who asked the former where he had defeated the Ottoman...

 area of Sector 2
Sector 2 (Bucharest)
Sector 2 is a sector in Bucharest.-Demographics:Sector 2 is the city's most multicultural sector. In particular, it contains Romania's largest community of Chinese people, who mainly live in the districts of Colentina and Obor....

. Most are already married at the time of their arrival, and have children while in Romania, which contributes to the expansion of their population as well.

Business and employment

The China Daily
China Daily
The China Daily is an English language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China.- Overview :China Daily was established in June 1981 and has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in the country...

estimated in 2009 that 3,000 of the Chinese in Romania consisted of migrant workers, in the textile, shipbuilding, construction, and agriculture sectors. Due to the global economic downturn, many have lost their jobs and sought the assistance of the Chinese embassy in returning home. As of February 2009, 209 Chinese workers had repatriated, with another 150 to follow. Romania also has some small traders from China, who began flowing into the country as early as 1989. They purchase commodities on credit from state-owned factories in their home provinces and resell them in Romania.

Chinese businesspeople, especially single women, often become the targets of robberies. The thieves show familiarity with their victims' habits and schedules. Chinese media suggest that local criminals are responsible for a rising wave of crime. However, a report from Romanian media claims that much of the crime is due to activities of Chinese mafia who run people smuggling
People smuggling
People smuggling is defined as "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents"...

 and protection racket
Protection racket
A protection racket is an extortion scheme whereby a criminal group or individual coerces a victim to pay money, supposedly for protection services against violence or property damage. Racketeers coerce reticent potential victims into buying "protection" by demonstrating what will happen if they...

s, and that they had murdered more than 20 Chinese between 1993 and 2001.

Media

A Chinese-language newspaper for Chinese migrants in Romania, Chinezii din Romania (旅罗华人报) was established in Bucharest in 1999. As of 2005, it was issued on a weekly basis with 20 pages, and had a circulation of 500. Its editor-in-chief is Li Jianhua (李建华), who has resided in Romania since 1995. Besides this one, there are also three other Chinese newspapers in Romania.
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