Xi says China will “never forget” the US bombing of its embassy

(Bloomberg) – President Xi Jinping promised to “never forget” NATO’s deadly bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, hours before arriving in Serbia on a European trip with the aim of sharing Brussels’ support for the US.

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“Twenty-five years ago, NATO flagrantly bombed the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, killing three Chinese journalists,” said Xi, in a Tuesday article published in Politika, Serbia’s oldest daily newspaper. “This we must never forget,” she added. “We will never allow such a tragic history to be repeated.”

During NATO’s 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, U.S. missiles killed three Chinese journalists in a strike that the White House later called a mistake and blamed on faulty maps. That event sparked widespread anti-US protests across China and cemented Beijing’s distrust of US-led groups such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Xi’s visit to Serbia, exactly a quarter of a century after the attack, is part of a three-stage trip that includes stops in France and Hungary. The Chinese leader is trying to convince European nations that his country’s massive economy is too big to abandon, as Brussels launches a series of trade investigations and sides with Washington on concerns about China’s overcapacity and risks for national security.

Adding to the political theater, Xi will be in Europe on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin takes office for his fifth term, as concern grows in Western Europe over his war in Ukraine.

Xi’s criticism of NATO helps explain his government’s logic for supporting the Kremlin following its invasion. Chinese officials have repeatedly referred to the bombing of Belgrade in recent years, while Beijing has signaled solidarity with Russia’s position that NATO aggression on its borders necessitated war.

US and European leaders have urged Xi to use his relationship with Putin to end what German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently called an “insane” war during a trip to Beijing.

Xi told his French counterpart in Paris on Monday that he opposes the war in Ukraine “being used to assign responsibility to a third country, tarnish its image and incite a new Cold War.” President Emmanuel Macron reiterated that there can be no security in Europe without security in Ukraine.

Ties between China and non-EU member Serbia have strengthened under Xi, even as Beijing’s broader relationship with Europe frays over human rights issues and trade disputes.

In the Politika article, Xi wrote that the friendship between Beijing and Belgrade was “forged with the blood of our compatriots” but would only “grow tall and robust.”

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