Twenty-five years ago, a B-2 stealth bomber attacked a Chinese embassy

Summary: May 7, 1999 marks a significant and unfortunate incident in U.S. military history when NATO troops using a B-2 bomber mistakenly attacked the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, killing three Chinese nationals and injuring twenty others.

-This event, which took place during the Kosovo War with the aim of stopping Serbian aggression against ethnic Albanians, significantly strained Sino-American relations. The United States attributed the bombing to faulty intelligence and systemic targeting errors, and although it apologized, there remains skepticism in China about the accidental nature of the attack.

– This incident has since influenced Chinese foreign policy, fostering closer ties with Serbia and impacting China’s overall stance toward NATO and the West. The impact of this event is still being felt 25 years later, influencing diplomatic relations and regional geopolitics.

Anniversary of the B-2 Bombing of the Chinese Embassy: A Dark Day in U.S. Military History

There are numerous historical milestones that the U.S. military will never forget – from December 7, 1941 to September 11, 2001 – but May 7, 1999 is one that the Pentagon probably wishes had never happened . 25 years ago today, the United States dropped five bombs on the Chinese Embassy compound in Belgrade, Serbia, during the NATO air war over Kosovo.

The bombs set the site on fire, killing three Chinese nationals and injuring another 20 others.

The U.S. media quickly responded to the mistake, with the Washington Post reporting at the time: “NATO missiles struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during a heavy allied bombardment on Friday that also hit the Interior Ministry and Army headquarters and again reduced the capital to rubble and ashes.” into the darkness.”

The attack was carried out by a single Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit crewed by two members of the U.S. Air Force’s 509th Bomb Wing, flying directly from Whiteman Air Force Base (AFB), Missouri. The bomber was reportedly armed with GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) precision bombs with an accuracy of 13 meters (14 yards).

On the occasion of a quarter of a century

The incident has since had a serious impact on Sino-American relations – a point highlighted Tuesday by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who is visiting China’s European ally as part of a European trip that included a two-day stop in France as he completes his trip will be in Hungary.

“We must not forget that 25 years ago today, NATO brazenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia,” Chinese state media translations said, according to ABC News. “The Chinese people value peace, but will never allow historical tragedies to repeat themselves.”

Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciu will host Xi on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Chinese leader first visited Serbia in 2016, when a number of bilateral agreements were signed, including the Strategic Partnership Declaration.

The ties that connect

China had spoken out against NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign, which began in March 1999 to protect Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority during brutal fighting as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) attempted to break away from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (then Serbia and Montenegro existed). The attacks were a response to Serbian leader Slobodan Miloševic’s brutal attack against Albanian rebels.

Many civilians were killed in the 78-day air raids on Belgrade and other targets in what is now Serbia. Human Rights Watch put the death toll at 500, but Serbian officials said the figure was closer to 2,000.

The embassy bombing in 1999 not only strained relations between Beijing and Washington, but also brought Beijing and Belgrade closer together. In the years since the incident, China has become Serbia’s largest provider of foreign direct investment and remains the Balkan state’s second-largest trading partner after the European Union.

Furthermore, the Serbian leadership remains committed to staying out of NATO, Politico.eu reported.

A terrible mistake?

The US quickly apologized and said the embassy bombing was a tragic mistake caused by faulty intelligence.

In a June 1999 letter to the Chinese government, the U.S. State Department said it had conducted an investigation and found: “The bombing resulted from three fundamental errors—the Directorate of Supply and Procurement (FDSP)—was seriously flawed. Second, none of the databases used to verify the target information contained the correct location of the Chinese embassy “No one who could have known that the target building was not the FDSP headquarters but was actually the Chinese embassy was ever consulted.”

The embassy bombing sparked widespread outrage in China, and many Chinese officials, as well as much of the public, did not believe – and still do not believe – that the incident was an accident. Angry protesters even stormed U.S. diplomatic facilities, and mistrust continues to this day with rumors that the bombing was a deliberate response to the Chinese embassy being used to transmit messages from the Yuglosaw army.

The governments of both the USA and Great Britain rejected the allegations.

Author’s experience and expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based author. Over his twenty-year career as a journalist, he has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites with over 3,200 published stories. He writes regularly about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics and international affairs. Peter is also one Contributing author for Forbes and Clearance jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: (email protected).