中国与保加利亚关系：历史与现状

LIN, Wenshuang (linwenshuang@bfsu.edu.cn) 

Wenshuang Lin, Ph.D., Professor, Vice Dean of School of European Languages and Cultures, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Deputy Director of Center for Central and Eastern European Studies, and Director of Center for Bulgarian Studies. She has been engaged in the teaching and research of Bulgarian language and literature for over 20 years, giving lectures on Bulgarian language, literature, history and culture at BFSU. Her research area is mainly focused on the studies in Bulgarian literature, Chinese-Bulgarian literature exchanges and Balkan ethnic studies. She published her monograph The Bulgarian Nation: Imagining and Re-imagining in 2014. Also, she is editor in chief of Dictionary of Central & Eastern European Proverbs and has nearly 30 publications in Chinese and international journals. Lin Wenshuang was rewarded with Bulgarian Parliamentary Medal in 2013, and the Special Contribution Award for Cultural Promotion by Ministry of Education of Bulgaria in 2019. 

Research Overview 

The relationship between China and Bulgaria has gone through the following periods: the first period: 1949-1965, after the founding of People's Republic of China, the two countries actively sought and explored cooperation in various fields and in various forms. The second period: 1965-1984, relations between the two countries entered an ice age for the well-known reasons. Third period: 1985-2006, under the influence of the new trend of the international environment, the two countries tried to establish a pragmatic approach for expanding the bilateral exchanges in more areas, and cultural and trade exchanges became the main theme of the development the relations. The fourth period: Since 2007, the development of bilateral relations went under the framework of China-EU relations, moving from strategic cooperation to comprehensive cooperation. 

In January 2007, Bulgaria formally joined the European Union. During this period, the two governments maintained high-level exchanges and signed a series of statements, conventions and agreements, laying a solid foundation for the further development of bilateral relations. As a member of the European Union, Bulgaria interacted with China mainly under the overall Euro-Atlantic framework. At the end of November 2015, a memorandum of cooperation was signed, by which Bulgaria officially became a country along the Belt and Road. Meanwhile, Sino-Bulgarian relations are mainly under the framework of China-CEECs Corperation ("17+1" Cooperation), with a focus on agricultural cooperation. In the future, the development of bilateral relations is expected to remain friendly and stable, maintaining interations in the form of bilateral and multilateral cooperation. The extension of bilateral cooperation will be expected to expand, especially in agriculture, infrastructure, automobiles, electronic science and technology, as well as culture, higher education and people-to-people exchanges.