China’s Serbia strategy: expanding military supplies to consolidate a proxy regime in Eastern Europe

On January 7, 2026, the Balkan bureau of Radio Free Europe published an investigation based on non-public customs data, according to which the PRC significantly increased arms supplies to Serbia in the period from January 2024 to June 2025, with a total value of up to $280 million.

Although the Serbian government concealed the nomenclature of purchases, the investigation emphasizes that the funds were directed toward acquiring unmanned systems, air defense assets, and new military equipment.

In particular, it is believed that in mid-2025, the PRC may have delivered to Serbia the long-range anti-aircraft missile system HQ-9—one of the most technologically advanced Chinese air defense systems.

At the same time, transit may have been carried out through Egyptian airbases—another operator of the HQ-9, which in December 2025 deployed this system on the border with Israel.