Global Courant 2023-05-30 14:56:25
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BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday expressed support for Serbia’s efforts to “protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity” after renewed violence between ethnic Serbs and NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo.
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The ruling Communist Party of China has long been a critic of the NATO alliance, due in part to the bombing of Beijing’s embassy in Belgrade during the 1999 air campaign to end Serbia’s brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.
The bombing, which killed three Chinese journalists, has long been used by Beijing to mobilize anti-Western sentiment. The US apologized for the attack, blaming it on flawed intelligence. The diplomatic missions in Beijing and other Chinese cities were attacked in the fallout, sending ties on a negative trajectory that has become increasingly tense in recent years.
China, along with Russia and Serbia, does not recognize Kosovo’s independence in 2008, and Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning on Tuesday blamed the violence on a failure to respect Serbian political rights.
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“We are against unilateral actions by Kosovo’s provisional institutions of self-government,” Mao said at a daily news briefing, referring to the Kosovo government in Pristina.
Despite Serbs boycotting recent local elections and trying to dissuade ethnic Albanian mayors from taking office, Mao said Serbs should take control of municipalities where they form a majority.
Violence flared when Serbs attempted to take over the office of one of the municipalities in northern Kosovo where Albanian mayors took office last week. At least 30 soldiers from the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, were injured on Monday.
“We urge NATO to seriously respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries involved and to really do what is conducive to regional peace,” Mao said.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was expected to meet the Russian and Chinese ambassadors to show support for his policies.
NATO military intervention in 1999 eventually forced Serbia to withdraw from the territory, but the dispute remains a focal point for conflict in Eastern Europe.
Russia’s ally Serbia took delivery of an advanced Chinese anti-aircraft system last year in a covert operation amid Western concerns that a weapons buildup in the Balkans at the time of the Ukraine war could threaten the region’s fragile peace.
