Xi Heads to Belgrade Around Anniversary of NATO Embassy Bombing
- Chinese leader to visit Serbia in May during European tour
- US bombing of Chinese embassy drove Beijing, Moscow closer
The damaged Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, following a NATO bombing in 1999.
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President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Belgrade around the 25th anniversary of the deadly US bombing of the city’s Chinese embassy, spotlighting an event that sparked anti-US protests at home and helped seed Beijing’s mistrust of NATO.
The Chinese leader will stop off in the Balkan nation on or close to May 7, according to people familiar with the preparations, who asked not to be identified because timings haven’t been made public. During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, US missiles killed three Chinese journalists in a strike the White House later called a mistake and blamed on faulty maps.