When six Chinese doctors landed in Belgrade two weeks ago, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic greeted them with elbow-bumps before laying a kiss on their nation’s flag, a gesture of gratitude that sent social media in China aflutter.
These doctors are now running the Balkan state’s COVID-19 strategy, as Serbia becomes a willing theater for Beijing’s “mask diplomacy.”
For weeks China has been showering European countries with millions of masks, test kits and other aid, recasting itself as the hero in the battle against the novel coronavirus, which emerged in Wuhan, China.
Photo: AFP / Dimitrije Goll / Serbia’s Presidential press service
EU officials have started to warn against a Beijing propaganda campaign — spun through the “politics of generosity” — that is distorting China’s initial missteps in managing a contagion that started on its soil and has now killed more than 47,280 people around the globe.
However, Serbia, an EU candidate country with a long history of balancing its Western and Eastern alliances, has never been so lavish in its praise.
“Chinese experts are the first to have defeated the virus. From now on, we will do everything they say,” Vucic said as state TV broadcast the arrival of the plane carrying the doctors and equipment.
Since then, the Chinese team has helped redraw the country’s approach to containing COVID-19, which has killed more than 28 Serbians and infected nearly 1,060.
Plans to use a military hospital as a hub for patients were scrapped after the Chinese experts said the site’s ventilation was unsuitable, officials told media.
The doctors were also behind the decision to ramp up testing — with a goal of 7,000 daily this month — and set up enormous field hospitals across the nation to house people with mild symptoms.
“It was agreed that from the moment of their arrival our experts will consult with Chinese experts on all future decisions,” Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said.
In the center of Belgrade, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) face now peers out from a billboard with the words: “Thank you brother Xi,” a message paid for by a pro-Serbian government tabloid.
The adulation is playing out against a backdrop in which the government has framed the EU as absent and ineffective.
Vucic initially downplayed the threat of the respiratory disease.
At a news conference he joked that it could be treated with rakija, a strong Balkan brandy.
However, when the dangers became undeniable, Vucic pivoted to criticizing a lack of help from the EU.
“The best way to insulate himself from criticism for his previous mishandling of the crisis is to launch attacks on the EU and hold pompous ceremonies at the airport welcoming Chinese doctors and medical deliveries,” said Majda Ruge, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “The imagery is very powerful.”
The fanfare is welcomed by Beijing, eager to paper over its slow response in managing the outbreak.
Footage of Vucic kissing the flag was widely aired in China and won him an army of Chinese online fans, the Global Times reported.
Web users applauded “his sincerity, gratitude, as well as attractive looking and tall figure,” the state-run paper said.
EU officials have since raced to highlight their already significant investments in Serbia’s healthcare — more than 450 million euros (US$492 million) in aid and loans over the past 20 years.
They also unveiled a fresh 93.4 million euro donation package to battle COVID-19 directly.
The exact quantities of China’s help have not been made public.
On the Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo, enthusiastic slackers share their tips: Fill up a thermos with whiskey, do planks or stretches in the work pantry at regular intervals, drink liters of water to prompt lots of trips to the toilet on work time, and, once there, spend time on social media or playing games on your phone. “Not working hard is everyone’s basic right,” one commenter wrote. “With or without legal protection, everyone has the right to not work hard.” Young Chinese people are pushing back against an engrained culture of overwork, and embracing a philosophy of laziness known as “touching
‘STUNNED’: With help from an official at the US Department of Justice, Donald Trump reportedly planned to oust the acting attorney general in a bid to overturn the election Former US president Donald Trump was at his Florida resort on Saturday, beginning post-presidency life while US President Joe Biden settled into the White House, but in Washington and beyond, the chaos of the 45th president’s final days in office continued to throw out damaging aftershocks. In yet another earth-shaking report, the New York Times said that Trump plotted with an official at the US Department of Justice to fire the acting attorney general, then force Georgia Republicans to overturn his defeat in that state. Meanwhile, former acting US secretary of defense Christopher Miller made an extraordinary admission, telling Vanity Fair that
The Palauan president-elect has vowed to stand up to Chinese “bullying” in the Pacific, saying that the archipelago nation is set to stand by its alliances with “true friends,” Taiwan and the US. Surangel Whipps Jr, 52, a supermarket owner and two-time senator from a prominent Palauan family, is to be sworn in as the new president tomorrow, succeeding his brother-in-law, Tommy Remengesau Jr. In a forthright interview, Whipps said that the US had demonstrated over the years that it was a reliable friend of Palau, most recently shown by its delivery of 6,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. “It’s important for
DELIVERING HOPE: The Japanese PM pledged to push ahead with plans to stage the Games, despite polls showing about 80% think they will not or should not happen Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga yesterday vowed to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control and hold the already postponed Olympic Games this summer with ample protection. In a speech opening a new session of parliament, Suga said that his government would revise laws to make disease prevention measures enforceable with penalties and compensation. Early in the pandemic, Japan was able to keep its caseload manageable with nonbinding requests for businesses to close or operate with social distancing, and for people to stay at home, but recent weeks have seen several highs in new cases per day, in part blamed on eased attitudes
RSS