Never Forget the Blood Debt

Twenty-three years later and the perpetrator is still on the loose.

This is a sad day.

On May 7, 1999, a B-2 stealth bomber flying directly out of Whiteman Air Force Base carried out a strike over Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The target turned out to be the Chinese Embassy.

Whether you measure the strike by the number of bombs or the pattern of bombardment, it was unique in its intensity and ruthlessness. The first bomb entered the side of the building at an angle, and the second penetrated the roof. Both bombs tore through to the ground floor and exploded. The third bomb blasted the northwest corner of the embassy, and the fourth exploded in the basement. The fifth bomb crashed through to the basement but did not detonate. It was not removed until five years later.

The blatant attack involving five bombs shattered the building and took the lives of talented people. Reporters Shao Yunhuan of Xinhua News Agency and Xu Xinghu and Zhu Ying from the Guangming Daily reporters, unfortunately died in the line of duty. The explosions also injured more than 20 Chinese diplomats.

Addressing the U.S.-led NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters attending a routine press conference on May 6 that “the Chinese people will never forget NATO’s barbaric atrocities of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and will never allow the historical tragedy to be repeated.”

Indeed, we will never abandon the memory of this blood debt, and will never let anyone rip out this painful page of history.

Twenty-three years ago, a perverse act killed three vigorous journalists. The perpetrator, U.S.-led NATO, casually dismissed the event as an “accidental bombing.” Twenty-three years later, NATO is not only unapologetic, but has emerged to allege that China presents a serious challenge to NATO.

The cruel reality of international politics mandates that we never forget this blood debt and that we remain vigilant. This debt was incurred on the 46th day of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia. That war unleashed the curse that is NATO interventionism. Over the past 23 years, the world has witnessed a series of thuggish acts by U.S.-led NATO, the first of which reared its head during the bombardment in the Kosovo war.

That war flouted international law. On March 24, 1999, piercing air raid sirens reverberated over Belgrade as NATO coalition forces brazenly launched a military operation against a sovereign country without the approval of the United Nations. For 78 days, the most powerful military alliance in the world indiscriminately bombarded the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In an effort to control the Balkan Peninsula, a strategic gateway to the Middle East and North Africa, the U.S. and NATO callously trampled international law, all the while talking about “rule

This was a shameful war replete with lies. To justify intervention in Yugoslavia, U.S. officials fabricated rumors of “ethnic cleansing.” The rumors that the West concocted spread rampantly, rousing the public to new levels of frenzy. However, in the second half of 1999, one after the other, politicians, and the media from many countries, including Britain and France, began to question the alleged “ethnic cleansing.” It turned out the government misled the public and there was no reason to launch an air strike against Yugoslavia. An investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia rejected the U.S. State Department’s original allegations of genocide.

This was a brutal war that caused a serious humanitarian disaster. NATO called the ethnic conflict in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo a “human rights crisis.” However, the bombing of Yugoslavia under the pretense of protecting human rights resulted in a truly dire humanitarian crisis. Over 78 days, NATO dispatched 1,150 fighter jets, carried out more than 2,300 air strikes, dropped nearly 420,000 bombs, including cluster bombs, and used depleted uranium ammunition. Thousands of innocent civilians died, including three Chinese journalists. Millions were displaced. “After the aggression, it is not possible to explain. There is no universal justification,” said Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić on March 24, 2021. Marking Remembrance Day of the Victims of the NATO Aggression, Lijian said, “No one has ever been held accountable for this crime, a crime greater than a crime. No one, for the 2,500 dead civilians, but also for soldiers and policemen who were only guilty of guarding, protecting themselves and their homes. No one has ever been held accountable for the more than 6,000 persons injured.”

This was a sinister war in which the U.S. wielded NATO as a tool to maintain American dominance. When Russia’s international status plummeted at the end of the Cold War, the U.S. power politics’ design for global hegemony transitioned from being a half-veiled objective to being an openly brutal mission. From the U.S. perspective, Yugoslavia was a nail Russia planted to snag eastward expansion of NATO. In the brazen attack on Kosovo, NATO wanted to pry this nail from where it was embedded. NATO’s relentless consolidation of its sphere of influence in Europe has freed up a desirous America to sink its hands into the pie of Asian affairs.

We will never forget this blood debt, especially since over the course of 23 years, the perpetrators have never apologized, escaping with impunity and operating without restraint to this day.

Over the past 23 years, NATO has intensified its meddling in the affairs of other countries through military force and fomenting domestic unrest. The tragedy of the barbaric bombing of Yugoslavia has been repeated time and again in other places: Yugoslavia I 1999; Afghanistan in 2001; Iraq in 2003; and in Syria in 2011. On March 17, at the Europa League soccer stadium, Serbian soccer fans displayed five huge banners listing over 20 countries that have been invaded by the U.S. and NATO. The U.S. and NATO pried open a Pandora’s box that produced the current Russia-Ukraine conflict. As President Vučić said, NATO bombed Yugoslavia 23 years ago, and now it accuses Russia of “invading Ukraine. How stupid and shameless. For them, the morals and values that are often talked about simply don’t exist.”

Not long ago, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg sought to pressure China into condemning Russia. In response, the spokesperson for the Chinese Mission to the EU, “we will never forget who bombed our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia … China does not need a lecture on justice from an abuser of international law. NATO needs to engage in serious self-reflection.”

The tragic scene 23 years ago has aroused the righteous indignation of countless Chinese people, and it has also spurred us to redouble our efforts to build our nation and forge ahead. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is now unstoppable. To uphold international fairness and justice, the Chinese people must promote peace in the world and never allow this historic tragedy to happen again!