Influence Competition in the Balkans: EU and China’s Communication Strategies in Serbia

Central Europe has been central to great powers competition during the Cold War. During the years 2000–2020, such competition seemed to have disappeared temporarily as the USSR collapsed and Russia faced internal challenges. During this same period, the major political development was the expansion of EU membership into Central Europe in parallel with the development of EU institutions and practices. Since the COVID-19 crisis, great powers competition came back to Central Europe in the context of managing the epidemic (getting access to vaccines and masks). In this context, a first competition observed was between EU-sponsored vaccines, and Chinese and Russian vaccines. Since the war in Ukraine, influence competition between the EU and China intensified due to the increase of Chinese investments through the Belt and Road Project, and the trade war over electric vehicles. Serbia is a particularly good case study to investigate the influence of competition between the EU and China. In 2023, Serbia signed a free trade agreement with China, while having an unclear discourse about EU integration. In return, the EU developed an exclusive narrative: either the BRICS or the EU economic architecture. This chapter aims to investigate how EU and Chinese communication strategies in Serbia are constructed and to analyse how such strategies have been received by Serbian public opinion and leadership, relying on a mixed-method approach to critical discourse analysis.