Inside Belgrade's New Chinese Cultural Center

Chinese soft power, and President Xi, are set to arrive in Serbia

After months of rumors, it’s finally confirmed. Chinese President Xi-Jinping will visit Belgrade next month. His visit will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Serbia. While details are scarce, Xi will likely participate in a commemoration of the bombing, which killed three and injured 20 more in May 1999. The precision-guided missile strike triggered days of violent anti-US protests in several cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. China has never forgotten, nor forgiven. A testament to this is the new, sprawling 32,000 sq. meter Chinese Cultural Center that has risen on the site where the old embassy used to be. The new cultural center did not yet exist when Xi last visited Belgrade in 2016. And while the center is not yet fully open to the public – they initiated a trial opening with limited calligraphy and tai chi classes earlier this month – a memorial in front of it, at the center of the square of Chinese-Serbian friendship, has become a pilgrimage site for Chinese tourists. An inscription on the memorial reads “honor martyrs, cherish peace”. I visited the center a few times this winter, and the memorial was always buried under piles of flowers. Xi’s visit next month, along with the imminent opening of the cultural center, will herald an intensification of Chinese soft power in Serbia, and give a boost to the two countries’ existing “steel friendship”.

The Chinese Cultural Center in Belgrade is one of its two most important in the world. The other, I’m told, is the center in Moscow. In late December, I was granted a tour of the building, which was mostly empty save for the top floor, where the most expensive restaurant in Belgrade was already open.