China and Serbia on Wednesday declared “ironclad friendship” during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Belgrade, underscoring the close political and economic ties between the two countries, which share a wariness of the United States.
Mr. Xi arrived in Serbia late Tuesday. This day marks the 25th anniversary of an erroneous airstrike involving the U.S. Air Force during the 1999 Kosovo War that destroyed the Chinese embassy in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Three Chinese journalists were killed in the strike.
Xi made a brief appearance with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday morning, where cheering crowds gathered in front of the Serbian Palace. The palace was the former seat of the Yugoslav government, which now houses Serbian government offices.
“The solid friendship between China and Serbia has withstood the test of international storms and hardships,” Xi told Vucic during the meeting, according to a report by China’s state news agency Xinhua. “It has deep historical foundations, solid political foundations, broad common interests, and a strong base in public opinion.”
In contrast to Xi’s last trip to East and Central Europe in 2016, when he faced noisy protests in the Czech Republic, he received a uniformly friendly reception in Belgrade and authorities warned against potential protesters. It is reported that they detained many people and mobilized state officials to support Mr. Xi. .
Belgrade resident Sara Markovic told independent television station N1 that her father, a practitioner of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned in China, and several members of what the Chinese government calls an “evil cult” He said he was taken into custody before Markovic. Mr. Xi’s visit. Attempts to confirm the report with Serbian police were unsuccessful.
China is Serbia’s largest foreign investor, and the closer economic ties stem from a shared wariness of the West and the Soviet Union before the collapse of Yugoslavia, with Belgrade as its capital, in the early 1990s. It is helping to expand.
It marks the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing and comes at a time when Mr. Xi’s government is trying to stabilize relations with the United States and Western Europe. He was scheduled to visit the site of the embassy bombing, a regular stop for Chinese officials visiting Belgrade, but by late afternoon he still had not arrived. When Xi visited Serbia in 2016, he visited the site, which had been redeveloped as a Chinese cultural center.
“We must never forget this,” Xi said in a statement published by the Serbian newspaper Politika on Tuesday, recalling that “25 years ago today, NATO blatantly bombed the Chinese embassy.” He said the friendly relations between China and Serbia were “built on compatriots’ blood” and “will remain in the common memory of the Chinese and Serbian peoples.”
Beijing’s fundamental suspicions about Western intentions and NATO’s role remain strong, and this surfaced in comments by Chinese officials and the media on the anniversary. But Mr. Xi restrained himself from the bitter anger expressed by China’s foreign ministry in Beijing.
“The Chinese people will never forget this barbaric atrocity committed by NATO and will never accept such tragic history to be repeated,” ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday. said.
Serbia, which still harbors deep resentment over the defeat of Christian Serbs to the Ottoman Turks in a battle in 1389, considers itself a righteous nation wronged by hostile outsiders. China shares the view that China is a powerful force.
Serbia and China are also bound by ties of mutual support for each other’s territorial claims. China is against the breakaway island of Taiwan, and Serbia is against Kosovo (a former Serbian land that declared itself an independent state after a NATO bombing campaign).
Vučić, who served as Serbian information minister under President Slobodan Milosevic during the Kosovo war, said: “On the issue of China’s integrity, that Taiwan is China, we have a clear position. In the same way, they support Serbian territory without any reservations.” on wednesday.
Xi said China “supports Serbia’s efforts to maintain its territorial integrity regarding Kosovo.”
As a result of the Ukraine war, public opinion toward China has deteriorated dramatically in many parts of Europe, especially in the former communist countries of the East. But Serbia, which, like China, has close ties with Russia, is firmly pro-Beijing and still expects billions of dollars in investments from China.
But like almost all European countries, Serbia has a widening trade deficit with China, which Vučić said Wednesday would be helped by a new free trade agreement that would allow Serbia to export 95% of its goods duties. I hope it will shrink. free. Although Serbia has very little of the agricultural products China needs, Serbian farmers will benefit from a new deal with China for prunes, plums and blueberries, Vučić said.
Mr Vucic was one of only two European leaders to attend a rally in Beijing in October to celebrate Mr Xi’s Belt and Road infrastructure plan, along with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and dozens of other foreign leaders also attended. Mr. Xi will next visit Hungary.
Belgrade is decorated with Chinese flags and signs paying tribute to “our beloved Chinese friends”. Crowds lined the streets to welcome the Chinese leader, and opposition politicians say the outpouring of affection was artificially engineered by authorities, telling street sweepers and other state employees to do their jobs. He claimed that he ordered them to skip the ceremony and support Mr. Xi.
Serbia’s state television station even stopped broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest, a hugely popular event watched by millions across Europe, to broadcast a welcoming ceremony for Mr Xi at Belgrade airport.
chris buckley I contributed a report from Taipei, Taiwan. Alisa Dogramadyeva Born in Belgrade, Serbia.
