What does the China Office do in Pristina?

The communist state, in the last decade, has obviously expanded its influence in the Balkans, creating stronger ties with certain governments and focusing on specific sectors, such as infrastructure or energy, for co-operation. In countries like Serbia, Chinese involvement is seen, even in culture, media and education.

Exception from this model constitutes Kosovo, its authorities say. Although China imports goods worth hundreds of millions of euros a year, the country has not allowed any major Chinese investment or other impact.

China does not recognise Kosovo's independence, but respects, as it says, Serbia's territorial integrity, which, with the Constitution, Kosovo still treats as part of its territory.

Consequently, the two countries have neither diplomatic relations, but, for years, China has an liaison office in Kosovo that operates under the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

Radio Free Europe contacted both of these institutions to ask about its activities, but received no answers.

The REL team was also present at the office facility at Lagen Arberia in Pristina on May 7th, but security there said that there were no personnel inside and that there were “around ten days” that there was no one there.

The Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora website, where embassies and foreign missions are listed in Kosovo, also figures China's Liaison Office. There are some contacts there, but the office website, which could provide information on its activities, is not functional.

Asked by Radio Free Europe whether to follow the work of the China Office in Kosovo, whether it has contacts with it and does not receive any report from it, the Government of Kosovo, in its joint response to the MPJD, did not offer much detail.

“Of course we are aware of the presence of all missions operating in the Republic of Kosovo and their activities in the country. As for the Office of China in Kosovo, we like Government do not have any communication with it, considering reports between the two countries”, it says in response.

Radio Free Europe also asked the United Nations Mission to Kosovo, U n NMIK, what contacts there are with the China Office in Kosovo and whether it is in communication between it and Kosovo institutions, but received no answers.

On Web site UNMIK writes that on February 16th of this year, the chief of this mission, Caroline Ziadeh, has hosted the head of the China People's Republic Office in Pristina, Cheng Lei. Among other things, Ziadeh is said to have highlighted UNMIK's <x0Incitives for confidence building”, but is no longer specified.

Research conducted by Radio Free Europe on the Internet results that, last month, Cheng has also been hosted by Pristina municipality Chairman Progress Rama. On the platform LinkedInRama wrote that with Mr. Cheng they discussed the numerous possibilities of co-operation” in the fields of economy, art and culture.

I was informed that the Government of China, so far, has issued visas for more than 1,000 business representatives from Kosovo”, Rama has said, among other things.

But in April, Cheng also met Ferizaj's chairman, Agim Aliu. He, in a Facebook post, has written that at the meeting, among other things, it has been discussed the possibilities for co-operation in various fields, and especially in facilitating doing business.

Outside politics, Cheng has been hosted by the chairman of the Kosovo Olympic Committee, Ismet Krasniqi, who has said he has requested from Cheng that, through the China Office, the two countries' Olympic committees link co-operation in the sport field for what the Chinese diplomat has agreed.

Mimoza Ahmetaj, who has served as ambassador to the Republic of Kosovo in several states, says of the Free Radio Exchange programme that Kosovo should benefit from the presence of each foreign diplomatic mission in the country, including that of China. The partnership built with them, she says, would serve, then, in realising Kosovo's own goals.

The co-operation between states is in some dimensions political, diplomatic, security, cultural, trade, economic... So it's a wide range of cooperation. Normally, we are interested in reducing Kosovo and must find forms... I would not like Kosovo to build walls between states, but rather, the co-operation bridge”, Ahmetaj says.

One who has published the US-based International Republican Institute last month has found that 69 percent of citizens in Kosovo do not believe that their country's interests are advanced by maintaining strong relations with China.

Ramadan Ilazi, from the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, tells of the prosecution that this perception has been created by the lack of formal political relations between the two countries.

He says Kosovo institutions should be very careful about the role China's Liaison Office can play.

In the absence of significant contacts with the central-level Government, China is trying to enter other levels of governance. This is potentially disturbing and Kosovo institutions should provide better guidelines on how to handle meeting requirements from the Chinese government”, Ilazi says.

Ilazi adds that China's strong support for Serbia goes to the expense of Kosovo.

This week, China's president, Xi Jinping, remained on official visit to Belgrade, where he reiterated that Beijing supports Serbia's stance on the Kosovo issue. Xi said, too, that Serbia is China's main partner in Central and Eastern Europe.

According to Ilazi, strengthening this alliance presents a major obstacle to Kosovo's full international recognition, since China is a permanent member, rightly veto, of the UN Security Council an organisation where Kosovo learns to membership.

Ilazi says Kosovo should be “potentially open for a level of diplomatic relations with China”, but that “should do so in full co-ordination with the US”.

But a more open policy also expresses former diplomat Ahmetaj.

The “is of particular importance to building reports with these missions. The way we cooperate with each of them and benefit from their presence must be found. At any time, let's not look at them as unwanted. Kosovo is in the process of statehood, in the process of consolidating the state, and their presence should serve Kosovo in this spirit”, she says.

To visit Kosovo, Chinese citizens must be equipped with visas, in addition to those who have diplomatic passports. Visas can be obtained at the Kosovo Embassy in Albania or Turkey.

Similarly, Kosovo citizens must have visas to go to China ʹ documents are handed over to the Liaison Office in Pristina as they are considered at the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

Kosovo and China do not have any formal co-operation agreements. In Kosovo there is no Chinese-owned medium, or pro-kinese content. Kosovo, too, does not have any loans from Chinese banks.

The ones that are obvious are trade exchanges. From the data Kosovo Free Europe Radio has provided, it turns out that in 2023, Kosovo imported goods worth 650m euros from China. The figure has reached almost double 2019, when the value has been 340m euros. The value of Kosovo exports to China, meanwhile, has been 442 thousand euros last year.

Kosovo customs has confirmed, as well, that among the imports from China last year, 57.444 recording equipment has been among them. Free Europe Radio has found that many cameras from China, Dahua and Hikvision companies are installed in Pristina squares, as well as in government buildings, including the State Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Health.

The issue is not a bit of a concern when it comes to the two Dahua and Hikvision companies, partly owned by the Chinese state, are on the blacklist of the US, Britain and Australia.

There are some Western countries like these that perceive China as malevolent actors, who in some cases have engaged in disinformive campaigns that portray the western community as failed and inefficient.

Even Kosovo's own prime minister, Albin Kurti, has in some cases described China as <x0 mic>”. / REL/