‘We must not forget’: How a bombing by US turned China into a superpower | External Affairs Defence Security News

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Serbia on Tuesday fell on a symbolic date — it was the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO’s) air war over Kosovo, an event that had a profound impact on how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) would modernise its military and formulate strategy in the years to come. 

Twenty-five years later, the memory of that incident is still remembered by the Chinese leadership. Referring to the bombing in an op-ed published in Serbia’s Politika newspaper on Tuesday, Xi said: “We must not forget that 25 years ago today, NATO brazenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.” Xi added, “The Chinese people value peace but will never allow historical tragedies to happen again.” 

On May 7, 1999, an American B-2 stealth bomber dropped five 2,000-pound guided bombs on the Chinese embassy compound in the Serbian capital, killing three Chinese nationals and injuring 20 others. Experts say that the strike, which the United States (US) said was a mistake, was not only seen by China as a humiliating slap in the face, but it also became a wake-up call for Beijing, changing its security perceptions and military policies forever. As evidenced by Xi’s op-ed, the bombing continues to impact relations between the two powers.

US Air Force’s B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. Photo credit: Northrop Grumman

Xi, who arrived in Serbia from France as part of his first European tour in five years, was slated to visit the site of the former embassy to pay his respects to the victims of the bombing. Today, a Chinese cultural centre stands at the spot where the embassy once stood, along with a black-marble monument, which has an inscription in both Chinese and English: “Honour Martyrs, Cherish Peace.” On Wednesday, Xi landed in the Hungarian capital Budapest. 

Why did the US bomb a Chinese embassy? 

The bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade occurred during the US-led NATO air campaign against the then Yugoslavia. 

In the aftermath, the US apologised, claiming that the Chinese embassy bombing had been a mistake caused by faulty intelligence. 

According to the US, the intended target of the strike was a Serbian state arms exporter’s headquarters that was located on the same street, a few blocks away from the Chinese embassy. 

In March that year, NATO had launched an air war to force a stop to then Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic’s onslaught against ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo. 

How did China react? 

China saw it as a display of US power, which became the catalyst for Beijing’s own military modernisation, according to experts. 

The bombing fueled anti-American sentiments, with angry protesters in China storming US diplomatic installations. 

In Beijing there was speculation that the attack on its embassy had been a deliberate act, leading to mistrust of the US and Western powers that has endured to the present. 

What did the bombing mean for China’s military? 

Experts say that the bombing became a catalyst for China’s military modernisation, which has recently yielded dividends — from aircraft carriers to stealth fighter jets. 

China’s first fifth-generation fighter J-20A Mighty Dragon. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

A recent US intelligence assessment said that Xi “envisions China as the preeminent power in East Asia and as a leading power on the world stage”, a direct result of Beijing’s investment in its military. 

After 1999, China’s defence budget saw over a decade of double-digit growth, and it continues to increase every year at a higher level of GDP. Beijing’s military spending spree has turned the world’s second-largest economy into also its second-largest military spender, behind only the US. 

Stekic said that like its counterparts in then Yugoslavia, the PLA had also seen reductions in its budget and size during the 1980s and 1990s, but the Kosovo war and the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade turned into a wake-up call for Beijing, prompting it to allocate greater resources to military modernisation. 

Shocked by the hi-tech weaponry used by the US in the 1991 Gulf war, Beijing launched an initial effort to modernise its military, but the PLA’s budget hit a historic low in 1997 at only 1.03 per cent of GDP due to the financial difficulties of that time, recalled retired PLA colonel Yue Gang, while speaking to the SCMP. 

But, the bombing of the embassy, among other factors, changed the situation, with Yue describing the bombing as “a stabbing into our flesh” and explaining that the “sense of humiliation” it caused “greatly accelerated the (military) reforms”. 

Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based military observer, told the SCMP that the Gulf war and NATO’s 78-day carpet bombing of Yugoslavia led to “an earlier, rapid and full launch” of Beijing’s military modernisation efforts. 

The NATO campaign also provided inspiration. Take the B-2, an intercontinental stealth bomber, which was used to bomb the Chinese embassy. Today, China is in advanced stages of developing its own long-range stealth bomber. 

According to experts, China’s geopolitical and security perception also changed drastically following the embassy bombing, with Beijing adopting a more assertive approach towards projecting its power on the global stage to protect its interests and sovereignty. 

(With agency inputs)  

First Published: May 09 2024 | 8:22 PM IST