As China Moves In, Serbia Reaps Benefits, With Strings Attached
At the last regional summit meeting, in July in Trieste, Italy, the participating countries — Albania, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, all seeking to join the European Union — also agreed to create a regional economic zone as part of an effort to consolidate a market of 20 million people.
Ms. Mihajlovic said Beijing was defending Serbia’s interests in the world,
and she praised China for not recognizing what she called an "illegally declared independence of Kosovo." Recognizing the sovereignty of Serbia’s former and majority-Albanian province is a key requirement for Belgrade to join the European Union.
His strategy also exploited the European Union’s troubled relations with the West Balkan countries seeking to join the bloc, and signaled
that — as the United States retreated from the world stage — China was aiming to expand its influence right into the heart of Europe.
In Serbia’s case, its traditionally most generous patrons — Russia and European Union members such as Germany — have demanded
that Belgrade alter its governing style in exchange for funds.
European Council wrote that Chinese economic corridors
and infrastructure projects replicate China’s preference for state-led rather than market-based decisions, with the politicization of investment, subsidy and contract decisions, rejecting the E.U.’s model of open and transparent bidding procedures,