More than two months have passed since 2022, and in those two months, the eyes of the world have been focused on this part of Eastern Europe.
Since the beginning of the new year, the contradictions between Russia and Ukraine have begun to heat up sharply, and military forces in the eastern region of Ukraine are rapidly assembling.
The Western countries led by the United States also jumped out at this time, "fanning the wind and lighting the ghost fire" behind this contradiction, hoping that the quarrel between the two countries would reach an irreconcilable point, and they would be good to sit in the back to reap the "benefits of the fishermen."
Putin
It was against this backdrop that on February 24, Putin signed a presidential decree late at night, immediately sending a large number of Russian troops into the Ukrainian region, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out completely.
And this also hit the heart of the United States, so he was the first to stand up under the banner of "democracy and freedom" and righteously launched sanctions against Russia. Seeing that the United States moved first, those Western "little brothers" also hurriedly followed behind the "big brothers" and launched a series of sanctions against Russia.
For a moment, the whole of Europe was aimed at the gun and the trigger was pulled toward Russia to the east.
Behind these countries, however, there is a small country in southeastern Europe that is indifferent to the actions of the Western world, neither responding to their calls for sanctions nor showing any hostile tendencies toward Russia.
This country is Serbia.
And to talk about why Serbia has not joined the Western camp, it is necessary to mention their president, Vucic.
China's "Old Friend"
Speaking of Vucic, I think everyone is familiar with it, since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, the name has appeared in major media reports and news in China several times.
To say why Vučić has such a large influence and exposure in China, it starts with the cooperation between China and Serbia during the epidemic period.
In February 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began to break out globally. Due to the lack of a strict management system and perfect epidemic prevention measures, the whole of Europe has become the main battlefield of the new crown virus in an instant.
Even the four countries of Britain, France, Germany and Italy, which have extremely developed medical systems, have been penetrated by the new crown virus in half a month.
Not to mention the United States, which boasts that its medical system is the most complete in the world, but as early as 2019, it has been spread across the country and pretends to be ignorant.
Watching those big countries fall one after another, in such a critical background, some small countries with underdeveloped medical systems have ushered in very serious challenges.
Serbia, on the other hand, is one of them.
Vucic
When the COVID-19 outbreak broke out in Serbia, there were only two ECMO ventilators in serbia, and masks and test agents were scarce.
In mid-March, the Serbian government tested only 300 people with a high likelihood of infection, and the results were that 60 infected people were detected in the first round of testing alone.
Faced with the possibility that 7 million people in the entire country could be ravaged by the virus at any time, the Serbian government felt a deep sense of powerlessness, and their existing medical resources simply did not have the ability to support the detection and treatment of so many people.
At that time, Serbia was a pre-election of the European Union, so Serbia's president Vucic first thought of asking the European Union for help.
European Union
At this time, however, the European countries were already taking care of themselves, and the medical equipment they stored was either sent to Germany or to support France, and where there was still the heart to take care of this small, poor country on the edge.
So, even if Vucic shouts out his throat, no country will lend them a helping hand. The EU's indifference also made Vucic truly realize that "European solidarity does not exist".
With more and more febrile patients rushing to hospitals every day, Serbia's healthcare system has become precarious and could be paralyzed at any time. However, in the face of all this, Vucic, although impatient, is powerless.
It was at this time that the nearby Hungarian president offered Vucic a "magic trick."
"Go to the East and ask China for help, only they can really help you."
The words of the Hungarian president instantly awakened Vucic.
"Yeah, why don't I go to China for help?"
So, with this in mind, Vucic sent eight letters to the Chinese government, earnestly hoping that his country would be rescued by China.
But at that time in China, the epidemic was not completely under control, so it was difficult for us to free up our hands to help other countries for a while.
Just when Vučić thought that the letters sent were sinking into the sea and Serbia's fight against the epidemic had completely lost hope, the Chinese government called him.
At this time, it is already late March, and the epidemic situation in Wuhan has been completely controlled and gradually began to improve. All parts of the country have gradually begun to unseal, and China has staged an "anti-epidemic miracle" in front of the world.
We can finally free up our hands to help other countries in need.
"China sent ventilators when no one was taking care of us!"
When it learned of Serbia's plight, the Chinese government immediately sent it the ventilator that Serbia needed most urgently and that they were most in short supply.
This ventilator is a medical machine that is designed to treat patients who have transitioned from infection to severe illness, helping them restore respiratory function in their lungs, and is also a "heavy weapon" for treating the new crown epidemic, so it is indispensable for every country.
Seeing that the most scarce medical equipment had finally been delivered, Vucic's hanging heart was finally put down, and he immediately held a press conference, at which he expressed great gratitude to China for this good deed, and said that "China is their true friend." ”
However, this is not the end, three days later, China sent a professional medical team to Serbia with a large number of medical masks to support them in the second phase.
To show his gratitude, Vucic personally stood at the airport to welcome the arrival of the Chinese team.
After the chinese team of experts arrived at the airport, looking at the bright red star red flag, Vucic couldn't help but kiss it deeply. This scene, which symbolizes the long-term friendship between China and Serbia, was also filmed by the reporters present.
Vucic kisses the five-star red flag
In the news of the day, the picture of "Vucic kissing the five-star red flag" also became the headline of the design countries competing to report. The people of China and Serbia are also very touched by this sincere cooperation between the two countries.
It was also at this moment that the Chinese people remembered Vucic, an "old friend" who had made good friends with China.
After seeing the sharp rise in relations between China and Cyprus, this has also aroused the dissatisfaction of the Western world.
However, friends who are familiar with history should know that in the history of Serbia's development, communication with Western countries has never been friendly.
A history of feuds with Western countries
Speaking of Serbia's feud with the West, it is time to speak of this special region of Kosovo.
In the 6th and 7th centuries AD, a group of Serbs of the Yugoslavs settled in the middle and lower reaches of the Sava River in the Balkan Peninsula along the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
This was also the first group of ethnic groups in Serbia.
The earliest state to bear the name "Serbia" was founded in the mid-10th century by Tsaslav Karoni Milovic. The rise of the Nemanya dynasty in the 12th century and the peak of serbian state development during the reign of Tsar Stefan Duchamp in the mid-14th century.
Later, Serbia was occupied by the mighty Ottoman Empire, and for the next 500 years, the Serbian people were ruled by the feudal military of Asian-style Islam.
By the 19th century, with the advent of the Industrial Age, the ottoman Empire's dominance had declined dramatically, and in 1804 and 1815, the Serbian people launched two revolutions, after which they gained a high degree of autonomy.
By 1878, Serbia gained full independence with the help of Russia and established a kingdom in 1882, but for ethnic reasons, its territory included only the central part of present-day Serbia.
On October 9, 1912, with the support of Tsarist Russia, the Balkan League declared war on the Ottoman Empire, the first Balkan War.
After the end of the three-year war, and because of the "uneven distribution of the spoils", a second Balkan war broke out between the Balkan alliances. These two wars also allowed Serbia to take the opportunity to regain the long-lost area of Kosovo.
However, because they have lost the Kosovo region for too long, which has long been occupied by foreign peoples, they have always lacked a sense of belonging to Serbia, which has also become a great hidden danger buried in Serbia.
In December 1918, just after the end of the First World War, Serbia, neighboring Montenegro, and Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Vojvodina, which were governed by the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, jointly formed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the predecessor of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In 1929, after government deliberations, it was officially named the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
During World War II, Yugoslavia was attacked on three sides, and all its neighbors, with the exception of Greece, were members of the Axis Powers.
In April 1941, the Axis invaded Yugoslavia and divided it up, and the kosovo region was incorporated into Albania, while Serbia, the main body of Yugoslavia, was occupied by the Germans for most of the territory.
Tito
At this time, the "National Liberation Army" appeared in Yugoslavia, and under the leadership of Tito, they began to rebel against the German occupation.
In 1945, the Red Army of the Soviet Union pushed back to Yugoslavia, and Tito, with his help, became the supreme leader of the country and established the communist Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, becoming part of the socialist camp.
It was also at this time that Yugoslavia and Serbia began to arouse hostility from the capitalist countries of the West.
However, since the West's greatest rival at the time was the powerful Soviet Union, they did not spend much time on Yugoslavia.
For Yugoslavia, compared with the external capitalist hostile forces, the national contradictions hidden in it are the most dangerous.
In 1980, Tito, who had been in charge of the situation in Yugoslavia, died. After the loss of the leader, the contradictions between the various ethnic groups began to intensify, and there were struggles and conflicts throughout Yugoslavia.
Thus, in 1991, Yugoslavia followed in the footsteps of the Soviet Union towards the end of the disintegration, and four of the six republics declared their independence.
A year later, the only remaining countries, Serbia and Montenegro, reorganized into the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which became the "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia".
However, although the original huge Yugoslavia has disintegrated, in the "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", ethnic contradictions have still not been resolved. Among them, the most fierce disturbance is the Kosovo area, which has not been integrated.
The outbreak of the Kosovo War
Due to the presence of Tito, the recognized leader of Yugoslavia, the Kosovo region has been relatively stable.
Since Tito's death, a nationalist movement in Kosovo aimed at independence has gradually emerged. Since its initial occupation by Serbia, the region has been deeply hostile and ethnically divided, and even after all these years, it has never dissipated.
In 1981, kosovo Albanian students held mass demonstrations that led to bloody clashes and forced the evacuation of many Serbs and Montenegrins from Kosovo.
Kosovo National Movement
Albania, which was at a deep point of disagreement with Serbia at the time, also stepped in to support the nationalist movement behind its backs.
Seeing that the nationalist movement was becoming increasingly uncontrollable, on February 27, 1989, Milosevic, who was then the leader of the Serbian Communist Party, announced the abolition of Kosovo's autonomous province status in order to suppress the fanatical nationalist movement in Kosovo.
However, this move not only did not alleviate the ethnic contradictions between the two sides, but also stimulated the confrontational sentiment of the people of Kosovo, and the conflict between the Albanians living here has gradually become more intense, and the suppression of the Albanians by the Serbian authorities has also escalated.
In 1991, when the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia disintegrated, the Kosovo region held a referendum to declare its independence.
However, this act of independence was not recognized by Serbia, and they soon sent troops to reoccupy it.
In the years that followed, riots often broke out in the Kosovo region, and fanatical nationalists carried out many attacks against Serbs.
In 1996, ethnic Albanian militants in the Kosovo region formed an armed group, the Kosovo Liberation Army, and began to use violent means to carry out the separation movement.
In the face of ethnic Albanian resistance, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbian authorities, led by Milosevic, took tough repressive measures and sent a large number of Serb troops and police forces into Kosovo in an attempt to eliminate the "Kosovo Liberation Army".
Since 1997, armed clashes have continued in Kosovo, with increasing casualties and some 300,000 people displaced as refugees.
After seeing the situation in Kosovo, the Western countries feel that the opportunity to control the Balkan Peninsula has come.
Therefore, at the meeting of the UNITED Nations Security Council, their representatives openly declared that "serious human rights violations" had occurred in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, exaggerating the ethnic contradictions that originally belonged to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the opposite side of the people of the whole world.
Nato
Then, under this fabricated pretext, NATO, a military alliance organization headed by the United States, launched a large-scale bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for a full 78 days. The Kosovo War broke out.
Under NATO's indiscriminate bombardment, a total of 1,800 people were buried in a sea of fire throughout Serbia, in addition to more than 6,000 people who were damaged to varying degrees in the bombardment.
Of the soldiers sent by Yugoslavia to peacekeepe in Kosovo, 300 died at the gunpoint of the Kosovo Liberation Army and 1,200 were killed in NATO bombs.
It is worth mentioning that on the night of May 7, 1999 (May 8, Beijing time), a B-2 bomber of the United States dropped five bombs on the Chinese Embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, blowing the embassy into ruins, and three Chinese journalists working in the embassy were also killed.
Three Chinese journalists were killed
Afterwards, the United States claimed that the incident was a mistaken bombing and mistakenly regarded the Chinese Embassy as a military target for its bombing. However, this reason, which can be seen by clear-eyed people, is just a perfunctory excuse.
The real reason for this was none other than the close relations between China and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at that time, and the Chinese people always stood on the same front as the Yugoslav people.
Later, in the face of NATO's strong military strength, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia could only be forced to compromise, withdraw its troops from the Kosovo region, and give up its control.
Under the control of the Western world, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was once again divided, and the only remaining Montenegro and Serbia also went to the end of farewell.
It can be seen that there have always been irreconcilable contradictions between Serbia and Western countries, and there has been a "bloody feud".
So even if Serbia wants to move closer to the European Union for the sake of the country's development, its citizens and governments do not have a good feeling for the Western world.
In contrast, although Serbia has now been greatly weakened by them, and it is difficult for economic and military strength to return to the original, they still have a certain degree of defensiveness against it, and have always blocked Serbia from the core area of Europe and rarely gave it assistance.
When he saw that Vučić was good friends with China, he was even more humiliated.
Willing to endure humiliation for the people
In July 2020, Vucic traveled thousands of miles to the White House to meet with then-US President Donald Trump in order to obtain medical assistance from the United States.
Generally speaking, when friends come from afar, they naturally greet each other with a solemn welcome ceremony and equal talk etiquette.
But Trump specifically chose his personal office as the place to meet with Mr. Vucic, and only moved a chair for Mr. Vucic to sit across from him. At first glance, Vucic looked like a prisoner on trial, looking very depressed.
Vucic meets with Trump
Even Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova couldn't take it anymore, accusing Vucic, as president of a country, of being too humble in the face of the United States, saying: "Anyone who arrives at the White House should raise his legs with high spirits!" ”
However, in the face of this accusation, Vucic said: "I have come here to seek help from the United States, as long as I can win the interests of the Serbian people, let alone let me sit on a small bench, even if it is to let me stand and listen." ”
Later, many European media described Vucic as a "crying ghost" who liked to ask them for help, trying to establish him as a cowardly image in the minds of the public.
Even Serbia's own nationals for a while dismissed some of Vucic's actions as "spineless" and "bowing to the West."
But this "crying president" did a few very tough things later.
The first is the construction of a highway next to the capital Belgrade. When Vucic asked the EU for help, the other side took advantage of Vucic's request for them to open his mouth to the lion and raise the price to a very expensive point.
What they did not expect, however, was that Vucic, who was cowardly in their eyes, immediately canceled cooperation with the European Union and turned to the arms of a cheaper and more efficient China.
This made the European Union dumbfounded, they did not expect that the Serbian president who had worked so hard to join them would really dare to "disobey" them.
For Vucic, although joining the European Union is the general direction of development set by the state, if it becomes a handle for Western countries and thus harms the interests of the people, he will never do it.
Therefore, in the face of the "blackmail" of the European Union, Vucic was very decisive in his refusal and his attitude was also very firm.
Another thing is the choice of "standing" in the recent Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
While the whole of Europe has stepped forward to impose sanctions on Russia, Serbia has always maintained calm and restraint, even in the face of pressure from the European Union and the United States, Vucic has been indifferent. He even said in front of media interview cameras that Serbia would not participate in sanctions against Russia.
When the United States and Europe slandered China, it was Vucic who jumped out to help China speak for the first time, bluntly saying that these remarks by the West were slanderous to China.
Under the oppression of many powers, the courage to defend the truth so firmly is also extremely rare among the leaders of European countries.
It is true that Vucic did shed his own tears on many occasions, but his tears were shed for the people of Serbia.
So, how can it not be the luck of the people to have such a leader in their own country?