It has been five years since Chinese President Xi Jinping set foot on European soil. The choice of countries he visits raises questions. He spent two days in the crucial EU member state of France. But then he went to Serbia for a day and no fewer than three days in Hungary. What attracts the Chinese world leader to those two countries?
Serbia is only a candidate country for the EU, and the unruly Hungary is no longer taken seriously by European diplomats in the common foreign policy. It has already abstained from too many European votes on China and is also courting Russia.
European infrastructure
However, there is something that connects Serbia and Hungary. Literally: if Xi had come in 2025, he could have taken the brand new Chinese-made high-speed train between the Serbian capital Belgrade and Hungarian Budapest.
That project is China’s calling card as a builder of infrastructure in Europe. Europe is lacking in this infrastructure: in April, former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta criticized the lack of efficient rail connections between European cities. “Any plans to address the lack of high-speed trains in the future remain rather theoretical,” Letta wrote in an influential report.
The Chinese high-speed train between Belgrade and Budapest should become a building block for future connections through this part of Europe. But the Hungarian part has been delayed and is probably already very expensive. Hungary keeps the costs secret, but according to the news site’s estimates Euractiv the railway would not break even for another 1,000 years.
As a result, Southern and Central Europe still harbor few illusions about China. A consultative body established in 2012 between China and 17 countries from that region, the so-called 17+1, is comatose. All members (including Albania, Greece, Romania, the Czech Republic, etc.) have now committed to keeping Huawei out of their 5G networks. And the Chinese are now saving on these kinds of expensive signs that highlight their growing influence. In fact, after the Chinese charm offensive in Europe’s underbelly, only Hungary remains.
During his visit to Hungary, Xi will sign 16 cooperation agreements. Chinese companies such as BYD (cars) and CATL (batteries) are setting up their first European factories there. It is with such projects that China shows that it rewards its most loyal friends.
Enthusiastic about doing business
Yet Xi does not need Hungary to divide Europe into a divided battle order. In April, German Chancellor Scholz visited Xi and showed up, according to the Suddeutsche Zeitung little evidence of European solidarity and many signs of enthusiasm about doing business with China. “There may be a report on banning Huawei from our 5G networks, but there is no consensus in the government,” said columnist Kai Strittmatter.
Rancor against NATO
Xi was in Belgrade on Tuesday to finalize about thirty projects, but his presence on May 7 also had a symbolic charge.
Exactly 25 years ago, during the Balkan Wars, the Chinese embassy was bombed by NATO, resulting in three deaths. Afterwards, NATO and the United States apologized for this, saying it was a mistake caused by an outdated map.
But the matter remains unsolved. So brought the British newspaper TheObserver and the Danish Politicians in 1999 reported espionage activities from the Chinese embassy, and anonymous NATO sources denied that NATO had “simply blundered”.
“The issue of whether the bombs were deliberately dropped or not and the poor handling of the matter caused a fundamental crisis of confidence between China and the US,” American sinologist Gregory Moore said in a paper in 2010, after extensive discussions with diplomats. According to sinologist Peter Gries (The China Journal) Chinese public opinion from now on saw the US as a bogeyman and NATO as an aggressor.
That legacy lives on today, as NATO and Russia face off since the invasion of Ukraine. China wants negotiations on a “new European security architecture”, and sees no place for NATO in this. In Serbia, Xi said the bombing of the Chinese embassy “will never be forgotten.” “We will never allow a repeat of these tragic facts.”
