By Denis Korkodinov
China is rapidly expanding its presence not only in the Middle East, but also in the Balkans. The Belt and Road project plays a huge role in this. Thus, Beijing organizes a convenient route to Europe. Serbia, a major regional player in the Balkans, has become the main focus of Chinese attention.
Thanks to Chinese investment, Belgrade began to actively implement a program for the development of road infrastructure. In addition, Beijing is very interested in developing the region’s metallurgical industry. Confirmation of this is the purchase in 2016 of a steel mill in the Serbian city of Smederevo. Particularly noteworthy in this fact is that previously this plant belonged to the United States. Now, Beijing is rapidly buying up former US liabilities in the Balkans.
In turn, the Serbian leadership demonstrates China’s readiness for more fruitful cooperation as an insurance option in case of loss of interest in the region from the European Union. Thus, Serbian-Chinese relations are limited not only to economic projects, but also cover the security sphere. In particular, amid Washington’s pressure on the Huawei concern, Belgrade has shown great interest in the development of Chinese technological innovations.
It is not only about the ambitious launch of the 5G project in the country, but also about the acquisition of more than 1000 Huawei face recognition systems in order to ensure national security. Among other things, in September 2019, Belgrade bought 9 military drones from the Chinese manufacturer “AVIC”.
According to international analysts, through the active introduction of identification systems, Beijing gains a great advantage in terms of obtaining intelligence from almost all parts of the world. And, despite the fact that Huawei is not formally connected with the state, however, according to Chinese law, all commercial organizations, mainly operating at the international level, under the threat of criminal punishment are obliged to cooperate with the Chinese special services.
Among other things, ordinary inhabitants hold the view that the Serbian leadership began to work very closely with Beijing. This may allow Chinese intelligence to receive valuable information from top officials of Serbia. In other words, Belgrade is rapidly becoming an object of spy games, where China begins to play a major role. And it is no by accident that there is an opinion that the scandalous video in which a Russian diplomat transfers a large sum of money to a high-ranking Serbian military man was the result of Chinese espionage.
A similar rapprochement between Belgrade and Beijing may be dictated also by the fact that Serbia began to doubt about the possibility of accessing European Union in 2025, due to the obstacles and lack of results in the negotiation process.
(The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights)