thumb|Sihanouk (left) visiting Romania in 1972, with Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu On that day, Sihanouk was in Moscow meeting Soviet prime minister Alexei Kosygin, who broke the news as he was being driven to the Moscow airport. From Moscow, Sihanouk flew to Beijing, where he was received by Zhou Enlai. Zhou arranged for the North Vietnamese Prime Minister, Pham Van Dong to fly to Beijing from Hanoi and meet with Sihanouk. Zhou greeted Sihanouk very warmly, telling him that China still recognized him as the legitimate leader of Cambodia and would be pressuring North Korea, along with several Middle Eastern and African nations, not to recognize Lon Nol's government, saying that once China issued its declaration of support, "the Soviet Union will be embarrassed and will have to reconsider". Both Zhou and Dong encouraged Sihanouk to rebel against Lon Nol and promised him military and financial support.
thumb|Sihanouk (left) visiting Romania in 1972, with Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu On that day Sihanouk was in Moscow meeting Soviet prime minister Alexei Kosygin, who broke the news as he was being driven to the Moscow airport. From Moscow, Sihanouk flew to Beijing, where he was received by Zhou Enlai. Zhou arranged for the North Vietnamese Prime Minister, Pham Van Dong to fly to Beijing from Hanoi and meet with Sihanouk. Zhou greeted Sihanouk very warmly, telling him that China still recognized him as the legitimate leader of Cambodia. and would be pressuring North Korea along wi,th several Middle Eastern and African nations, not to recognize Lon Nol's government, saying that once China issued its declaration of support, "the Soviet Union will be embarrassed and will have to reconsider". Both Zhou and Dong encouraged Sihanouk to rebel against Lon Nol and promised him military and financial support