(MENAFN- The Peninsula) AP
Belgrade, Serbia: Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit to European ally Serbia on Tuesday falls on a symbolic date: the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO's air war over Kosovo.
U.S. jets dropped five bombs on the Chinese Embassy compound in the Serbian capital on May 7, 1999, setting it ablaze and killing three Chinese nationals. Twenty other people were injured in the bombing, which has burdened relations between the two powers ever since.
Xi referred to the bombing in an op-ed published in Serbia's Politika newspaper on Tuesday, saying that "we must not forget that 25 years ago today, NATO brazenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia,” according to translations carried by Chinese state media.
"The Chinese people value peace but will never allow historical tragedies to happen again," Xi added.
The Western military alliance had launched the air war in March that year to force then Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic to end a brutal onslaught against ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo.
The U.S. at the time apologized and said the embassy bombing was a mistake that happened due to faulty intelligence. The intended target, Washington said, was the headquarters of a Serbian state arms exporter located on the same street, a few blocks away.
"Imagine that somebody would, even by accident, strike an American Embassy somewhere around the world. The reaction would be immediate,” said Sven Biscop, a professor of European foreign and security policy at the Ghent University and Egmont Institute.
"So for a country like China, it is also clear that this is a big thing," he added. "And, of course, it has not been forgotten.”
Angry protesters in China stormed U.S. diplomatic installations as the bombing fueled anti-American sentiments and speculation that the attack was intentional rather than accidental. Mistrust over the incident has endured to this day.
"We will probably never really conclusively know either way," Biscop said. "But one thing is sure. In war, incidents like that do happen, and I usually tend to go for the most simple explanation rather than try to invent complicated theories.”
While straining Beijing's relations with the U.S., the embassy bombing brought China and Serbia closer together. China has emerged as Serbia's largest provider of foreign direct investment and its second-largest trading partner after the European Union.
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