Why is the Chinese president visiting Serbia and Hungary?

Xi Jinping's state visit to Serbia takes place on the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese embassy by NATO in 1999.

Transcript

00:00 Chinese and Serbian flags were hoisted in Belgrade for the arrival of Chinese President

00:05 Xi Jinping on Tuesday. China`s state visit to Serbia symbolically took place on the 25th

00:11 anniversary of NATO`s bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by the U.S. Air Force.

00:16 Washington, D.C. has since admitted the bombing was a mistake, but to this day, the incident

00:21 is a stain on U.S.-China relations.

00:24 And of course, it has not been forgotten, but maybe also to some extent, its memory

00:28 is kept somewhat artificially alive so that one can sort it whenever it is felt necessary

00:38 to put some pressure.

00:40 In recent years, Chinese investments have been flowing into Serbia, a non-EU country.

00:45 Beijing owns mines and factories and also finances the construction of a railway line

00:50 between Belgrade and Budapest. The Russian train running there will soon be replaced

00:54 by Chinese locomotives. But China has also been accused of pollution and environmental

00:59 degradation in Serbia.

01:00 In countries like Serbia, the economy is somehow, I think it was like that in other countries,

01:07 the economy is in the first place, the ecology is in the second place.

01:11 A Chinese tire factory is also facing accusations of human trafficking and exploitation of Vietnamese

01:17 and Indian workers in Serbia.

01:19 Xi Jinping will then travel to Hungary, judged to be close ideologically to Beijing and Moscow.

01:25 Hungary is seen as Beijing's gateway into Europe. There, China invests heavily in electric

01:30 vehicle factories.

01:35 Probably due to the rising level of protectionism in Europe, for the Chinese now it's very important

01:39 to relocate at least a part of their production facility from China to Europe to stay and

01:45 produce within the boundaries of the European Union.

01:48 Brussels is advocating for protectionist measures against China. For example, the European Commission

01:54 is investigating Chinese subsidies to electric vehicles and solar panels, accusing them of

01:59 uncompetitive practices.

02:01 (whooshing)