“Pressure for greater transparency is unlikely to originate from the Chinese side, which has little incentive to impose additional accountability requirements on a willing Serbian partner. Instead, any pressure that emerges is likely to come from domestic actors. The central question is whether this pressure will become strong enough to change the terms on which future deals are concluded, or whether it will merely make their political, social, and economic costs more visible. The most plausible trajectory is therefore not an end to cooperation but growing domestic pressure over its governance.”
Ivana Rudinac is author of the issue “A Year and a Half After the Novi Sad Tragedy: Who Drives China-Backed Infrastructure in Serbia?” of the ChinaMed Observer.
