China and Serbia. (The Economist)

[Macdonald Stainsby]

CHINA AND SERBIA: Serbian-Chinese liaison The Economist, February 5, 2000 B E L G R A D E WHO said Serbia was isolated? At the bustling Rezhisor caf in one of Belgrades concrete suburbs, a teenage waitress confides that she is learning a foreign language to communicate with customers: not English or German but Chinese. Around her, Chinese men smoke, drink tea and talk on mobile phones. In the ill-lit shopping mall outside, Chinese vendors sell Chinese-made clothes, toys, umbrellas and other goods to Serb customers. As parts of Yugoslavias depressed and chilly capital turn into an unromantic sort of Chinatown, the importance of President Slobodan Milosevics most promising diplomatic friendship is becoming clear. Every Thursday, a Yugoslav aircraft flies from Belgrade to Beijing and brings back a new delegation from China. As many as 300 Chinese a day have applied for Yugoslav residence permits. Nor are relations confined to cross-cultural exchanges over crispy noodles. In December, the Yugoslav government triumphantly announced that $300m in grants and very soft loans had been transferred to its coffers from China. The exact source is a mystery: some believe it may originally have been Serbian money, sent abroad for safe keeping. In any event, the money from China has helped to slow down the dinars dive, which might have provoked hyperinflation. Mladjan Dinkic, a dissident economist, reckons the inflationary dragon can now be kept at bay for six months. The seeds of Serbias friendship with China were sown by Mira Markovic, the presidents influential wife, who went to China three years ago and loved its mixture of Marxism, the market and firm government. The partnership was sealed in fire last May when NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, setting off a wave of anti-American rage in China. Though China has resumed military exchanges with the United States (by sending a delegation to the Pentagon last week), and has accepted an offer of compensation, it still insists the bombing was deliberateand is snuggling up to Serbia as a fellow victim of NATO. _______ Macdonald Stainsby ----- Check out  the Tao ten point program: http://new.tao.ca *** "Those who preach the doctrine of the class struggle are always persecuted by those who practice it". -George Bernard Shaw