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Chinese President Xi Jinping has sharply criticized NATO over its “flagrant” bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999, as he seeks to strengthen ties with Serbia ahead of a visit to the Balkan country on Tuesday.
Xi, traveling to Europe for the first time in five years, will travel from the French Pyrenees to Serbia on Tuesday afternoon, where French President Emmanuel Macron will host him on the final day of a three-day state visit to France.
In a signed letter published in Serbian media outletpolitika on Tuesday, Xi cited the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in the former Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War and called for unity between Beijing and Belgrade.
“25 years ago today, NATO blatantly bombed the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, killing three Chinese journalists. . . We should never forget that,” Xi said, according to an English version of the article. “The Sino-Serbian friendship forged with the blood of our compatriots will remain in the common memory of the Chinese and Serbian people.”
Analysts believe his European trip, which also includes Hungary, is aimed at exploiting the continent’s differences in attitudes towards Russia and the US and potentially undermining NATO and EU unity on China.
Chinese scholars have praised Macron’s push for a more independent European stance on the world stage, while Serbia and Hungary are seen as more pro-Russian despite the Ukraine war.
During Xi’s visit, French and Chinese companies signed several cooperation agreements, including subway construction contracts for France’s Alstom and a memorandum of understanding with Airbus to deepen aviation cooperation, but no major contracts.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who will host Xi, was former leader Slobodan Milošević’s propaganda minister during the NATO bombing of Belgrade – an event that cemented Serbia’s anti-American stance.
NATO said the Chinese embassy bombing was an accident that occurred during a war to protect Kosovars from Serbian aggression.
A potential incentive for Serbia: The Chinese customs administration announced on Tuesday that it would lift the bird flu warning for Serbian poultry products.
Chinese media widely covered Xi’s trip to Europe for several days. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, quoted him as telling Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Elysée Palace on Monday that there is no such thing as China’s overcapacity problem. subsidized Chinese goods in response to Western concerns about possible dumping.
In a separate interview, Beijing’s ambassador to Hungary praised the country’s key role in China’s infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative, in Europe, which acts as a rail distribution hub for goods from China.
He also touted a high-speed line between Belgrade and Budapest to be built together with Chinese companies.