The red flags extend from the Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade into the heart of the Serbian capital, following the freeway.
By welcoming Xi Jinping to Belgrade, Serbia is demonstrating its pride in its “ironclad friendship” with China.
One whole tower at the Western City Gate, also called the Genex Tower, is covered in the national colors of China.
A billboard advertising Hisense, a Chinese home appliance maker that established a refrigerator factory in Valjevo, western Serbia, last year, is present just for good measure.
The Chinese president’s schedule may have drawn criticism in some regions of Europe. Ultimately, it is not frequently that a world leader of this caliber includes Serbia on a three-city visit.
However, despite continuing its EU membership negotiations, Serbia has been strengthening its ties with China in recent years.
Mr. Xi is probably going to underline his critiques of NATO throughout his tour. His visit takes place on the same day that US airstrikes on China’s Belgrade embassy began 25 years ago. Furthermore, the president made it apparent that emotions around that episode are still quite high in an editorial for the Serbian newspaper Politika.
He wrote, “We should never forget.” “The Chinese people value peace, but we won’t let such a sad chapter of history happen again.”
Rhetoric like that finds resonance in Serbia, where the great majority of people are against joining NATO. This is a major reason why it makes perfect sense for Mr. Xi to make this visit on his European tour.
Business relationships also play a role. After Mr. Xi’s first visit to Serbia in 2016, the two nations expanded their “comprehensive strategic partnership” with the signing of a free trade agreement last year.
China increasingly asserts itself as Serbia’s main source of FDI (foreign direct investment). Li Ming, its envoy, claims that Hisense contributes 20,000 along with Zijin, a mining firm, and Linglong, a tire producer.
China is ranked fifth on the list of countries receiving foreign direct investment by UN trade estimates, behind the US, Germany, Italy, and Russia.
However, the Chinese investments are striking and are only going to get bigger. The first electric high-speed trains from China have arrived in Serbia. They will eventually be used on the Belgrade-Budapest railway, which is being rebuilt with Chinese financial and technical assistance, alongside Swiss-made rolling equipment.
And that’s only the beginning. Goran Vesic, Serbia’s minister of infrastructure, said Chinese collaborators will work on other infrastructure, such as sewers, roads, bridges, and tunnels. “There is a great deal of potential for cooperation with Chinese businesses,” he stated to RTS, Serbia’s official channel.
It makes sense that during a dinner held in honor of Mr. Xi, Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, intends to personally serve his Chinese counterpart the best wines his nation has to offer.
Mr. Vucic told China Central Television that Serbian wines were “not as expensive as [those] in France” and that he thought Mr. Xi would “like” his choices. He also noted that within five years, Serbian wine will not be subject to import tariffs in China.
Maybe this was a subtle jab at President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted President Xi during his first swing in Europe. A bottle of Rémy Martin Louis XIII cognac, which would have cost around €5,000 in Belgrade, was the French president’s gift.
The charm offensive also included a visit to the Pyrenees to bolster appeals made by President Macron and President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission for President Xi to guarantee more fair trade with Europe and persuade Vladimir Putin of Russia to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
The president of China will go to Budapest after his visit to Belgrade, where he will meet Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, the leader of the largest EU member state.
Chinese investments play a significant role in this as well; one of the projects supporting Mr. Orban’s opposition to the EU consensus on issues ranging from migration to arming Ukraine is a plant for the electric vehicle giant BYD.