View source for China–Yugoslavia relations

{{Infobox bilateral relations|China–Yugoslavia|China|Yugoslavia|map=China Yugoslavia Locator Map.png}}

'''China–Yugoslavia relations''' were historical foreign relations between [[China]] and now [[Breakup of Yugoslavia|split-up]] [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]]. For a long period during the [[Cold War]] China was critical towards perceived excessive [[liberalism]], too close cooperation with [[Western Bloc]] or [[market socialism]] of Yugoslavia, therefore the Chinese communists accused the Yugoslav communists of being [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionists]], while the Yugoslav communists accused the Chinese communists of being [[dogma]]tics. But, the good relations between both [[socialist states]] were restored at the end of the 1960s, and improved even more since the [[Sino-Albanian split|Sino-Albanian rupture]] occurred<ref name="Entrevista de Tito con el presidente chino">{{cite journal |title=Entrevista de Tito con el presidente chino |url=https://elpais.com/diario/1977/09/01/internacional/241912810_850215.html |journal=El País |date=31 August 1977 |access-date=15 October 2021 }}</ref><ref name="Hua Kuo-feng critica en Belgrado el hegemonismo de la URSS">{{cite journal |title="Hua Kuo-feng critica en Belgrado el hegemonismo de la URSS" |url=https://elpais.com/diario/1978/08/23/internacional/272671211_850215.html |journal=El País |date=22 August 1978 |access-date=15 October 2021 }}</ref> (the good relations that existed between China and Albania were frozen since 1972 and were definitively canceled in 1978, the cause of said rupture was that the Chinese communists began to be considered as [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionists]] by the Albanian communists), with the trend of improved relations continuing in relations with successor states, [[China–Serbia relations|particularly Serbia]]. In the 1980s [[Deng Xiaoping]]'s foreign policy resembled Yugoslavia's stance of being non-aligned and non-confrontational and with [[Hu Yaobang]]’s 1983 appraisal of ‘''Josip Tito's principles of independence and equality among all communist parties, and of opposing imperialism, colonialism, and hegemonism''’.<ref name="Jie Li">{{cite web|url=https://www.e-ir.info/2018/12/07/soviet-foreign-policy-in-the-early-1980s-a-view-from-chinese-sovietology/ |author=Jie Li |title=Soviet Foreign Policy in the Early 1980s: A View from Chinese Sovietology |work=[[E-International Relations]] |date=7 December 2018 |access-date=20 February 2021 }}</ref> All six [[former Yugoslav republics]] have memoranda of understanding with China on [[Belt and Road Initiative]].<ref name="Bertelsmann Stiftung">{{cite web|url=https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/our-projects/germany-and-asia/news/asia-policy-brief-chinas-economic-footprint-in-the-western-balkans |author=Jacob Mardell |title=China's Economic Footprint in the Western Balkans |work=[[Bertelsmann Stiftung]] |date=18 February 2021 |access-date=20 February 2021 }}</ref>

==History==
{{Infobox bilateral relations|Republic of China–Yugoslavia|Republic of China (1912–1949)|Kingdom of Yugoslavia}}
[[File:Poseta Hua Kuo Fenga Jugoslaviji.jpg|thumb|Hua Guofeng at [[Brijuni]], [[SR Croatia]], [[SFR Yugoslavia]], 1978.]]
In the short and immediate period after the 1948 [[Tito–Stalin split]] and at the end of the [[Chinese Civil War]] and the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]] in 1949, Yugoslav Communists looked at China for a revolutionary ally in defending "[[Marxism-Leninism]]" against Soviet "revisionism."<ref name="Johnson">{{cite journal |last=Johnson |first=A. Ross |date=1974 |title=Yugoslavia and the Sino-Soviet conflict: The shifting triangle, 1948–1974 |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/0039-3592(74)90032-5 |journal=[[Studies in Comparative Communism]] |volume=7 |issue=1−2 |pages=184–203 |doi=10.1016/0039-3592(74)90032-5 |access-date=20 February 2021}}</ref> In the fall of 1949, the new People's Republic of China rejected [[Belgrade]]'s offer to establish diplomatic relations and adopted the [[Cominform]]'s anti-Yugoslav position.<ref name="Johnson"/> The Chinese position changed in 1955 after Stalin's death when [[Mao Zedong]] welcomed the Yugoslavian Communist Union Delegation and self-critically apologized for poor relations in the past, silence and for "''times when we let you down''".<ref name="Mao & Yugoslavian Communist Union Delegation">{{cite web|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/117035 |author= |title=Mao & Yugoslavian Communist Union Delegation |work=Selected Diplomatic Papers of Mao Zedong ([[History and Public Policy Program]]) |date=1956 |access-date=20 February 2021 }}</ref>

When the Soviet Union and many other European communist countries withdrew their advisors from China in 1960, advisors from Yugoslavia were among those that remained.<ref name=":92222">{{Cite book |last=Turcsanyi |first=Richard J. |title=Contemporary China: a New Superpower? |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-03-239508-1 |editor-last=Kironska |editor-first=Kristina |chapter=Relations with the Europe and Russia |editor-last2=Turscanyi |editor-first2=Richard Q.}}</ref>{{Rp|page=243}}

Following the [[Sino-Soviet split]] in late 1960's Beijing invited [[People's Republic of Albania]] to moderate its criticisms of Yugoslavia, and to suggest the creation of a Balkan zone (together with [[Socialist Republic of Romania]]) to challenge Soviet influence in the region.<ref name="Etienne Manac’h report">{{cite web|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116455 |author=Etienne Manac |title=China and the European Socialist Countries |work=Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France ([[History and Public Policy Program]]) |date=10 October 1969 |access-date=20 February 2021 }}</ref>

[[President of Yugoslavia]] [[Josip Broz Tito]] visited China for the first time in 1977, followed by a return visit of [[Chinese Prime Minister]] [[Hua Guofeng]] to Yugoslavia in 1978.<ref name="Bastian">{{cite web|url=https://reconnectingasia.csis.org/analysis/entries/china-reconnects-balkans/ |author=Jens Bastian |title=China Reconnects with The Balkans |work=[[Reconnecting Asia]] |date=22 February 2018 |access-date=20 February 2021 }}</ref>

Following the breakup of Yugoslavia and [[Yugoslav Wars]] judges [[Li Haopei]], [[Wang Tieya]] and [[Liu Daqun]] from China served at the [[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]].<ref name="ICTY-Judges">{{cite web |url=https://www.icty.org/en/about/chambers/judges |title=The Judges |date= |website= |publisher=[[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]] |access-date=21 February 2021 |quote=}}</ref><ref name="ICTY-Former Judges">{{cite web |url=https://www.icty.org/en/sid/10572 |title=Former Judges |date= |website= |publisher=[[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]] |access-date=21 February 2021 |quote=}}</ref>

{{Infobox bilateral relations|China–Yugoslavia|China|Federal Republic of Yugoslavia}}
The PRC supported the [[Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]] during the [[Kosovo War]] and opposed the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] airstrikes against targets in Serbia and Montenegro.<ref name="Warren I. Cohen 2010. p. 261">[[Warren I. Cohen]]. ''America's response to China: a history of Sino-American relations''. 5th edition. New York, New York, USA; West Sussex, England, UK: Columbia University Press, 2010. p. 261.</ref> The PRC believed that [[Slobodan Milošević]] was acting to prevent the secession of Kosovo by Albanian separatists from the FRY, and thus supported his actions as preserving the FRY's territorial integrity.<ref name=":0">[[Suisheng Zhao]]. ''Chinese Foreign Policy: Pragmatism and Strategic Behavior''. New York, New York, USA: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 2004. p. 60.</ref> The PRC opposed NATO intervention in Kosovo on the basis that it [[Kosovo precedent|set a dangerous precedent]] that PRC officials believed could in the future afflict the PRC, should riots occur in [[Tibet]] or [[Xinjiang]] and then result in bombings.<ref name=":0" /> PRC opposition to the NATO actions intensified after the [[United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade|bombing of the PR Chinese embassy]] in Belgrade during the war.<ref name="Warren I. Cohen 2010. p. 261"/>

==See also==
*[[Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement]]
*[[World War II in Yugoslavia]]
*[[China in World War II]]
*[[United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade]]
*[[China–Croatia relations]]
*[[China–Montenegro relations]]
*[[China–Serbia relations]]
*[[China at the 1984 Winter Olympics]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Foreign relations of China}}
{{Foreign relations of Yugoslavia}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:China-Yugoslavia relations}}
[[Category:China–Yugoslavia relations]]
[[Category:Bilateral relations of China|Yugoslavia]]
[[Category:Bilateral relations of Yugoslavia|China]]
[[Category:Bosnia and Herzegovina–China relations]]
[[Category:China–Croatia relations]]
[[Category:China–Montenegro relations]]
[[Category:China–North Macedonia relations]]
[[Category:China–Serbia relations]]
[[Category:China–Slovenia relations]]