Belgrade 7 May 2024 – Photo M. Moratti
On May 7 and 8, Belgrade was covered in Chinese flags for the visit of President Xi Jinping. For Serbia, it was an opportunity to sign economic agreements and political declarations, confirming China as the third pole of its foreign policy
Xi Jinping’s visit to Belgrade was an event that sent a very important signal to the Balkan region and the rest of Europe. Belgrade was one of three stops on Xi’s European trip, which included Paris, Belgrade and Budapest. It was a visit full of events and messages, with a high symbolic content.
The choice of date was not random: Xi arrived in Belgrade on the evening of May 7. That date marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which caused the death of three journalists and injured around twenty people. The United States recognized the mistake at the time, but the wounds of that episode are still raw.
Xi himself underlined this in a message published in the newspaper Politics : “The Serbian-Chinese friendship, forged with the blood of our compatriots, will remain in the shared memory of the Serbian and Chinese peoples and will inspire us to move forward with great strides”. The title of Xi’s message, “May the light of our steel friendship shine on the cooperation between Serbia and China” it recalled the old socialist rhetoric and brought to mind the times of socialist Yugoslavia for many (a period which, to tell the truth, is often criticized and denied by Vučić’s party).
The very organization and atmosphere of the visit projected Belgrade back a few decades. In fact, on the evening of arrival, the national broadcaster interrupted the live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest to connect to the airport where Xi’s plane had just landed. There torre di Beograd na Voda she cloaked herself in the colors of the Chinese flag. The most important institutional officials of Serbia were there to receive Xi and ex-president Tomislav Nikolić also met again.
Xi was welcomed by the guard of honor and the bike, the traditional Serbian (and not only) dance which was staged on the same airport runway. Previously, as per ceremonial, Belgrade had been decorated with Chinese and Serbian flags posted on every street lamp, but unlike other visits, this time there was also a huge Chinese flag that stood out on the torre Genex and light panels around the city reiterated their welcome to the president and celebrated Serbian-Chinese friendship.
The Genex tower in Belgrade – Photo M. Moratti
A day from another time
On the day of the visit, traffic in Belgrade collapsed (but this is nothing new): the area around the Palace of Serbia (palace of Serbia, former seat of the Yugoslav federal government) was closed off and an impressive number of policemen, around 6,500, also blocked pedestrian traffic along the bridges over the Sava trying to reach the ceremony area. The Chinese delegation, made up of around 400 officials, was welcomed at the Palata Srbije by traditional rifle volleys and when Vučič and Xi appeared, a cheering crowd shouted waving Serbian and Chinese flags .
Numerous buses were parked nearby and many of those present at the ceremony admitted that they were municipal or associated company employees and that the party had brought them to the demonstration . This is a now consolidated practice, when it is necessary to demonstrate support for the president, the party’s organizational machine promptly goes to work and the distinction between party and institutions becomes increasingly blurred.
The agreements concluded and the joint declaration
China is already massively present in Serbia with a series of very important investments, both in the industrial and energy sectors. As regards infrastructure, Chinese cooperation consists of loans provided to the beneficiary country, while the works are carried out directly by Chinese companies with their own workers. In Serbia, China has invested heavily, particularly in the copper and steel sector. Some of these investments had made headlines in the past, especially regarding workers’ conditions without the Serbian authorities having intervened in any case.
Xi Jinping’s visit must therefore be read within the framework of an already existing cooperation, defined in the past as a strategic partnership. This cooperation was expanded by the two presidents who agreed to “building a community between Serbia and China with a common future” and Serbia is the first European country with which China intends to build such a community.
To seal the agreement, 29 bilateral agreements were signed between the two countries, in addition to the agreement on free exchange of goods which had already been signed in October. The agreements reached include Chinese help in organizing the Expo in Belgrade, scholarships, the introduction of direct flights between Belgrade and Shanghai and numerous other forms of cooperation.
Also of great importance was the joint declaration with important political contents, such as respect and support for the territorial integrity of China, characterized by the words of Vučić who reiterated that for him “Taiwan is China” and that China itself supports Serbia’s territorial integrity without reservation. Vučić also said that China will support Serbia in all matters that are discussed at the United Nations. The reference to the two burning issues, Kosovo and the UN resolution on Srebrenica, are clear.
The meeting then concluded with an official lunch, which was also attended by the president of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik who, with great satisfaction, saw the visit as a further opportunity to strengthen relations between the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska and China.
Behind the scenes
The Chinese president’s visit was also marked by some episodes that raised some concern. In Belgrade, the presence of a large number of Chinese men all dressed in the same way (red cap, black jacket and trousers) was noted. These people accompanied the Serbian police in the city, as if they were joint patrols and conversed in Serbian with them. In one of these cases, one of these people has filmed by the N1 television crew notoriously critical of the government, and refused to appear.
Another disturbing episode concerned eight people, including six activists of Falun Gong, a Buddhist group whose practice has been banned in China since 1999, who were “arrested beforehand” by Serbian police before Xi’s arrival and released only when Xi left again. There daughter of one of the activists explained how the family itself is often followed by plainclothes police and that their phone calls are intercepted. A similar episode had already occurred during a previous summit with China. The police declined to answer about the reasons for the preventive arrest.
An internal and external success
Xi’s visit was celebrated by the Serbian government as a success, both internally and externally. Serbia, by expanding its cooperation with China, can say that it has added a “chair” to its foreign policy, which until now was based on the “two chairs” principle, as far as relations with Russia and the EU were concerned. China now provides Serbia with the opportunity to “distance itself” from positions of the EU and Russia when these positions are not convenient as he underlined Vuk Vuksanovic del Belgrade Center for Security Policy.
From an internal point of view, it once again reaffirms the control of the SNS over almost all sectors of society and the breakdown of the distinction between party and state. In view of the next local elections and for the city of Belgrade, the position of the SNS and Vučić himself are strengthened: Serbia, a relatively small country, negotiates and binds itself in a “common future” to China, as one of the most important countries in the world. It remains to be seen whether there will be a price to pay for this “common future”.
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