"Steel brother" You are in Serbia: Where the Chinese laugh at everything

Charles Parton, a British analyst and former diplomat in China, thinks that Xi Jinping's visit to Serbia less strategically important than visits to Budapest and Paris, but yes, it fit into the calendar.

As Parton told the Guardian, when she has already settled in, Xi will use the opportunity to point out everything the Americans are doing, writes Deutsche Welle.

Because, by chance or not, when one of the most powerful people in the world lands in Belgrade on Tuesday (May 7), it will be exactly a quarter of a century after NATO hit the Chinese embassy there. Three Chinese journalists were killed then.

That hit during the intervention against FR Yugoslavia at the height of the war in Kosovo was declared by NATO as an unintentional mistake. They never believed in it in Beijing.

"For China, it plays the role of a historical moment in which the 'big bad West' directly harmed China." It reinforced the narrative that there is a need to rearrange the world order," Stefan Vladisavljev, an expert on China from the Belgrade Foundation for Political Excellence, told DW.

Many Chinese users of social networks also remind of the "shameful" bombing. For many, Serbia thus became an ideological ally in the epic struggle against the "West led by the USA".

That is why many in the West view the relations between Serbia and China with suspicion. There is a fear that Serbia's eventual entry into the EU would be the admission of a "Trojan horse". Chinese or Russian or both.

Photo: Tanjug / Jadranka Ilić ILIĆ/ nr

"Steel friends" with many jobs

In Serbia, Si will be welcomed with open arms. Belgrade tabloids, as well as the speeches of President Aleksandar Vučić and Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, are full of praise for "steel friendship" these days.

That term has also been adopted in China. Xi himself used it when he received Vučić in Beijing last October.

The Chinese presence in Serbia exists far from major political issues. Let's say, at the sewage system. With 3,2 billion euros, part of which is financed by Chinese loans, the construction of 5.000 kilometers of sewage network and 159 wastewater treatment plants is financed.

Ironworks, mines, a smelter, a tire factory, parts of highways and high-speed railways, all the way to the construction of projects around the National Stadium and Expo 2027, which Vučić's government declared a first-class national project... The Chinese are everywhere.

Some would say literally everywhere - Belgrade is the first European city completely networked with Huawei cameras that can recognize faces. Recently, Serbia has been purchasing drones and anti-aircraft defense from China.

But it is still mainly about infrastructure. "Over the past 15 years, China has become one of the mainstays of Serbia's infrastructural and economic development," says Vladisavljev.

"Cooperation with China fits perfectly into the dominant narrative on the domestic political scene, where economic development is presented as the supreme value, while elements of a democratic society are behind or below it," adds our interlocutor.

In Serbia, where more than half of the workers earn less than 500 euros, jobs take precedence over, say, environmental protection. More than once, President Vučić responded to remarks about the destruction of the environment in Bor or Smederevo with the argument of jobs.

Photo: Tanjug / Jadranka Ilić

Gateway to Europe

In China, the small Balkan country is seen as a convenient gateway to Europe. Serbia is closely connected with the EU market, but is not subject to strict regulations. Neither when it comes to financing projects nor when it comes to the environment.

Back in 2013, when Xi was the newly elected ruler in Beijing, Serbia was among the first in the world to announce its readiness to be part of the New Silk Road.

As a flagship project, a high-speed railway line between Belgrade and Budapest was imposed here - which is badly delayed, mainly due to problems in Hungary. Beijing sees in it the lifeblood of the European branch of the Silk Road and the possibility to connect the port of Piraeus with Central Europe.

As Samina Sultan, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Institute of German Economy in Cologne, previously told DW, the railway acts as a geopolitical tool that will give China greater geostrategic influence.

Critics in Serbia, on the other hand, warn that China does not invest, but rather lends money, and then the Chinese companies themselves earn it by building.

Back in 2013, when it came to the Zemun-Borča bridge, popularly known as the "Chinese bridge", foreign investment expert Milan Kovačević told DW:

"We have an obligation to return the interest, which the authorities assure us is not high, but what have we actually done when the Chinese are building the bridge themselves?" We practically imported the bridge from China"!

Photo: Tanjug / Jadranka Ilić

Brussels' suspicion

In terms of the volume of trade, China is still in the second most important place for Serbia - behind Germany. But, while the Serbian deficit in trade with Germany is around half a billion euros per year, the one with China amounts to 3,4 billion.

That should ease the free trade deal that comes into effect in July. According to Vučić, Serbia will sell more fruits, vegetables, brandy and wine to Great China.

Vladisavljev points out that China was strengthened in the "pantheon of Serbia's foreign policy partners" by aid at the beginning of the pandemic, when China sent vaccines and medical equipment.

At that time, billboards with the inscription "Thank you, Brother Si" were displayed around Belgrade. The aid of the European Union of over one hundred million euros was mostly kept quiet.

Because it is also about big politics. China, along with Russia, is a power that has veto power in the Security Council, where it supports Serbian positions on Kosovo and other issues.

For Serbia, says Vladisavljev, China is a "photo-robot of a perfect friend" and is welcome for the attempt to balance between the West and the East. "China takes on the role of a dominant player, which is placed in the context of competitors to the West." In Serbia, where the anti-Western narrative is extremely developed, public opinion demands that there be such an actor."

This, he adds, is a thorn in the side of the EU and the US, which traditionally view the Balkans as their sphere of influence. "From this comes the concern that Serbia could, if it ever enters the EU, be a hub of Chinese interests that would thus be integrated into the EU systems."

But some experts in China have similar fears, only in the opposite direction.

In light of the increasingly strong rivalry between the US and China, the European Union is also relying on tactics to reduce dependence on China, while Serbia is directed towards the EU, write political scientists Fang Jiongsheng and Jian Junbo from Fudan University in Shanghai.

"The business of Chinese companies in Serbia could thus decline, which would ultimately have a negative impact on the friendship between the two countries," they wrote in a guest article for the Chinese "The Paper" at the end of last year.