1.
SV EXTERIOR: President Ceausescu past waving crowds in open car.
0.18

2.
GV: Acrobats perform PAN TO motorcade.
0.48

3.
GV: Balloons released.
0.58

4.
GV: Top shot of motorcade.
1.10

5.
GV INTERIOR: Delegates sit down for talks.
1.12

6.
CU: Chairman Hua.
1.17

7.
CU: President Ceausescu.
1.20

8.
GV: Conference room.
1.23

9.
CU: Mrs Ceausescu.
1.26

10.
SV: Chinese and Rumanian delegation (2 SHOTS)
1.34

11.
GV: Walking into banquet. (2 SHOTS)
1.55

12.
GV: Sitting down and eating. (4 SHOTS)
2.06



Initials JS/2400


TELERECORDING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The Rumanian President, Mr. Nicolae Ceausescu, has been given one of the most rousing welcomes ever given to a visitor to China. Mr. Ceausescu, who was last in Peking in 1971, was welcomed because of his country's independent line on the Sino-Soviet rift. He arrived on Monday (15 May).

SYNOPSIS: More than one-hundred-thousand people assembled in the centre of Peking to cheer the President and his wife, who were met at the airport by China's most senior leaders. Reuters newsagency described the welcome as the kind China gives only to its very best friends. The people cheered, and entertained, President and Mrs. Ceausescu as they drove from the airport. The Communist Party chairman and premier of the Peoples Republic, Hua Kuo-feng, led the official reception at the airport and accompanied the Romanian couple into Peking. People lining the city's main streets and the Tien An Men square waved flags, flowers and banners.

Reuters newsagency says the reception is thought to be slightly bigger than ones recently accorded to President Tito of Yugoslavia and to the Cambodian leader, Pol Pot. Rumania, a member of the Warsaw Pact, is the only country in the Soviet bloc to enjoy good relations with China.

There were long sessions of talks between President Ceausescu, Chairman Hua and other members of the Rumanian and Chinese delegations. There has been speculation that President Ceausescu might be asked to mediate in the war between Vietnam and Cambodia, and in the border dispute between China and the Soviet Union.

At a banquet on Monday night (15 May) in the Great Hall of the People, Chairman Hua said the danger of a world war was increasingly threatening all peoples. Without actually naming the United States or the Soviet Union, he said the huge armed forces and antagonistic military blocs in Europe constituted the world's greatest danger to the cause of peace. He praised Romania for maintaining an independent line.