Summary: The 1980s brought major geopolitical changes for Bulgaria and the rest of Eastern Europe. One of these changes was China’s return to the Eastern Bloc. This return was different from China’s first appearance in Eastern Europe in the 1950s, because it was no longer ideological and because China was no longer a country in need of economic aid. China’s Deng Xiaoping-led transformations became an alternative to the reforms launched by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The Chinese example was particularly attractive to the longtime leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Todor Zhivkov, but he was aware that it was impossible to follow China because Bulgaria was in the Soviet sphere of influence. The article presents the steps of rapprochement of reforming China with the countries of the Eastern Bloc.
Keywords: Eastern Europe, China, Chinese reforms, economic ties, East-West relations
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