Why Did Vučić Go to China – For Himself or for Serbia?

The visit of Aleksandar Vučić, the President of Serbia, to China is of more economic than political significance, but it is motivated by his personal reasons for staying in power and proving to his supporters and voters that he is not shaken and that he is still a “global badass,” according to Danas’s interlocutors. They were commenting on whether Vučić’s trip to Beijing holds greater economic or political significance for Serbia.

On the first day of Vučić’s multi-day visit, he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and on Thursday with Xi Jinping. It can be assumed that with both presidents, in addition to politics, economic issues will also be discussed. The question is whether Vučić’s visit has greater economic or political significance for Serbia, but also for him, and how the EU views this, writes Danas.

Dimitrije Milić, program director of Novi Treći Put, believes that the trip to China has more economic significance because this country is less vocal on political issues when it comes to Serbia.

“Unlike Moscow, Beijing rarely comments on Serbia’s internal political issues, protests, or the Kosovo question. Therefore, we can interpret this more as a visit of economic significance, as China is rapidly growing as an economic partner of Serbia (primarily in the sphere of imports), but also as an investor in Serbia and a foreign creditor,” he points out.

He adds that where it can have political significance is that for the government, the visit certainly represents a kind of economic counterweight to the EU, so it can use it to conduct a balancing foreign policy more successfully than would be the case without China.

Nebojša Vujović, a former diplomat, tells Danas that Vučić’s trip to China is motivated by his personal reasons for staying in power and proving to his supporters and voters that he is not shaken and that he is still a “global badass.”

“He wants to convey that he is a unique and dominant leader, and I don’t rule out that he told the West, ‘I am your man, you educated me, but I am doing this in the interest of staying at the helm.’ So, what he is doing is deceiving both the West and his voters with one eye, and his hosts with the other. They see this, but it suits them to have their geopolitical ‘duster’ in Europe, ‘we also have a horse in the race in Europe,’ who will always be useful to them,” Vujović states.

He concludes that how the wider European public views this and how much it weakens Serbia’s European political image is not important to either the European administration or Vučić.

“The EU bureaucracy finds him convenient, and his political embarrassment does not bother them too much. ‘We will wash that away because he continues to pay our ‘tavern’ bill regularly, from Kosovo to lithium and back. After all, we Europeans also like to see the Great Wall of China, it can even be seen from the moon.’ However, Europe from the famous square and the ‘Manneken Piss’ fountain has not been a positive magnetic force attracting us who are thirsty for freedom and democracy for a long time. They think they have given us Vučić and Manneken Piss, and a few tasty Belgian chocolates; isn’t that enough? Let Vučić entertain himself in his company in China, that is, after all, his natural habitat,” Vujović concludes./Danas/