Following coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak critical of the CCP in the Romanian press, the Chinese embassy in Bucharest published two scathing statements on its website. The first one named Romanian media such as Kanal D television and Republica.ro and accused them of “misleading people.” The second, explicitly titled “Stop the slander of China immediately,” was even more forceful and condemned Romanian articles where it deemed that “facts have been replaced by rumors, and science by imagination, full of mistakes and confusions, seriously violating the principle of objectivity of the press and professional ethics of the media.” Romanian media were taken aback by the tone, accusing the embassy of asking them “to behave like the [media] in communist China: loyal to Beijing, critical of Europe and the U.S.”