How Aleksandar Vučić stole the vaccine-diplomacy show
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic receives the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine against COVID-19 at a health station in Rudna Glava, Serbia, on April 6, 2021. Photo by Zorana Jevtic/Reuters.
Eleven days after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, TV audiences in Serbia were treated to an extraordinary sight. The country’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, kissed the Chinese national flag as medical equipment, personal protective equipment (PPE), and Chinese medical staff landed in Belgrade on March 22, 2020. Overnight, billboards sprang up across the Serbian capital featuring China’s president and the caption “Thank you, brother Xi.”