How the 1999 Belgrade embassy bombing by US was a ‘wake-up’ call for China
- The 25th anniversary of the ‘humiliating’ air strike is marked with a promise from Xi Jinping that it will never be forgotten
- The air strike was a catalyst for Chinese military modernisation and a more outward-facing foreign policy, observers say
The United States said the strike was a mistake. For China, it was a painful and humiliating slap in the face. A wake-up call. A turning point towards an era of strategic suspicion and distrust.
It was also a display of power, and a catalyst for China’s military modernisation reforms and a demonstration of the country’s urgent need for technological development.
Three people were killed when the bombs struck in the middle of the night on May 7, 1999, during the US-led Nato air campaign against the then Yugoslavia, and 25 years later the memory of that humiliation is still vividly remembered by the Chinese leadership.
“This we should never forget,” Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is on a state visit to Serbia, wrote in an article on the incident that was published in the Serbian newspaper Politika on Tuesday.
From 1999, China’s annual defence budget went through more than a decade of a double-digit increases, and continues to rise each year at a higher level of GDP. The spending spree turned the world’s second-largest economy into its No 2 military spender, behind only the US.