Krstinovska: Chinese propaganda present in the Balkans, Serbia is relying on China to block Kosovo

Given that Russia has lost its diplomatic capital due to the war in Ukraine, Serbia is now relying more on China, says Ana Krstinovska, president of the ESTIMA Institute in North Macedonia, in an interview with The Geopost.

Krstinovska, who has written academic research on the (non) relations between Kosovo and China, emphasizes that the Balkans are facing Chinese propaganda, as she emphasizes that it is Serbia and the region of Republika Srpska that are being subjected to this influence.

According to her, there is a direct connection between what China does at the global level and what is felt as a consequence in the Balkan region.

“We are definitely not immune to this, and journalists should be the frontline workers who will drive the public debate so that our citizens can form an informed opinion about the Chinese presence,” she says.

Full interview:

The Geopost: How is the situation in the Balkans when it comes to Chinese influence and propaganda?

Krstinovska: If we talk about Chinese activities, information and influence activities in the Western Balkans, I think that they go under the radar. They are much less explored and much less attention is being paid to Chinese activities. And that is in part because our civil society and our media are not that well informed, they do not have the understanding and the capacity to deal with the information threats posed by Chinese presence in the region. That is because China uses different tools compared to Russia. It uses much less disinformation and relies much more on propaganda, that is disseminating one-sided or largely embellished information about China and about what China is doing and on the other hand eliminating all criticism that could be addressed towards China or towards its actions in the region.

The Geopost: Which countries are more attacked from Chinese propaganda and influence?

Krstinovska: When we talk about the region we see a clear division between on one side the NATO allies, North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro, plus Kosovo, and on the other side we see Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and especially the region of Republika Srpska, which are much more subject to Chinese influence, not only in terms of the information space, but also in terms of economic influence, and unlike the first group of four countries that I mentioned, where China is somehow becoming unwelcome or less welcome by the political elites, in Serbia and in Bosnia, we see an increased Chinese presence in the past several years.

The Geopost: You wrote an academic research, Kosovo and China, non-relation, Can you explain what is that, what does it mean for Kosovo?

Krstinovska: When I was doing my PhD, I was writing about the five countries in the Western Balkans that have official relations with China and the influence that China has in those countries, and it somehow didn’t feel right to have Kosovo left aside. So I wanted to explore what’s happening between Kosovo and China, because on the surface there is nothing, there is no official Chinese presence, but on the other hand China is very important when it comes to Kosovo’s statehood and the recognition of Kosovo. And maybe the main conclusion that I could share with you, especially since the Russian aggression in Ukraine, is that we see increased efforts by Serbia to use its privileged relationship with China. Basically, Serbia is counting much more on China now, it was Russia in the past, but given that Russia has been losing its diplomatic capital due to the war in Ukraine, Serbia is focusing much more on China to basically block Kosovo’s efforts to secure international recognition or to seek membership in different international organizations. And unfortunately at that time, I hope that the situation is changing or will change, I didn’t see any efforts or systemic activities on the side of Kosovo to somehow address this challenge. I had the feeling that Kosovo is not very much aware of the potential that China has to prevent its efforts for international recognition. And that is maybe a message for Kosovo policy makers that this is something they should be taking seriously and working on seriously.

The Geopost: How to defend or how to identify the Chinese propaganda in our media.

Krstinovska: Well, I will have to invite you to a training or media professionals to a training because there is a lot to learn and to understand. But basically the first step would be to understand Chinese official sources, where they come from, how they are being transformed into our local information media space and to seek for alternative sources that provide a different opinion. Democratic pluralism is something that we should be striving for as democratic societies and in that case, in that respect, journalists and media have a key role to play. They should be working more, investigative journalists especially, on Chinese presence in the region, on Chinese activities globally and how they are related and how they influence our countries because there is a direct link between what China does at the global level and what we are feeling as consequences in our region as well. We are definitely not immune to that and the journalists should be the frontline workers that will encourage public debate and inform the debate so that our citizens can form informed opinion about the Chinese presence.

/The Geopost