This article samples thirteen years’ the People’s Daily published between 1955 and 2015 and investigates the use of Roman abbreviations in the newspaper over a time span of 60 years. The study reviews Roman abbreviation use, explains the method of data selection, and discusses the current situation of the Roman abbreviations in Chinese texts. The research shows that the use of Roman abbreviations rapidly increased in the initial stage, became stable, and remained to be part of the Chinese texts. The Roman abbreviations fi rst occurred in the pattern of “Roman abbreviation + Chinese characters”, but this pattern was gradually replaced by alphabetic abbreviations. The article concludes that single use of a particular Roman abbreviation, use of low frequency abbreviations, inconsistent use of Roman abbreviations are common and affect information distribution and communication. Drawing on these findings, the authors also discuss its implications for language policy making.