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China ratifies extradition treaty with Serbia
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 12, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 12, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
China ratifies an extradition treaty with Serbia, enhancing cooperation but raising concerns over dissidents and asylum seekers. The treaty follows increased economic and policing ties.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China ratified its extradition treaty with Serbia on Friday, broadening its network of countries in Europe willing to extradite Chinese citizens, including dissidents and asylum seekers, and even Taiwanese individuals.
The treaty's formal approval by China's top legislative body came a year after Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the Balkan state when 29 documents, including the extradition treaty, were signed.
The pact will enable the two countries to request extraditions of wanted persons found within each other's borders, if and when the Serbian parliament also ratifies the agreement.
CONCERN ABOUT DISSIDENTS AND ASYLUM SEEKERS
China has signed extradition treaties with at least 60 countries, over half of which are officially in force. But European courts could still block Beijing's extradition requests despite bilateral extradition treaties.
In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights, which has jurisdiction to hear cases from 46 European countries including Serbia, ruled against a decision by Polish courts to allow the extradition of a suspected Taiwanese criminal to China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory.
The European court said the man would have faced a real risk of ill-treatment in Chinese detention.
The treaties have also led to concerns about dissidents and asylum seekers being sent back to China, but Beijing has said it uses extraditions to pursue fugitives, fight corruption and recover stolen monies through widely publicised operations dubbed "Fox Hunt" and "Sky Net".
POLICING PRESENCE
Beijing has also sought to increase its police presence in Serbia. Its public security ministry sent police officers to Serbia in 2019 and 2023 to carry out month-long joint patrols with local police forces.
Hungary also reached a similar law enforcement pact with Beijing in February 2024, when China's public security minister paid a visit to Hungary's Viktor Orban.
The move was criticised by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who called it "a backdoor for foreign interference".
Hungary also negotiated an extradition agreement with China in July.
In a sign of strong bilateral ties with China, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungary's foreign minister attended a massive military parade marking the end of World War Two in Beijing last week.
Beijing's growing commercial ties with Budapest and Belgrade could be a motivating factor for the extradition treaties, as the region expects a steady inflow of Chinese businesses and visitors.
Chinese battery maker CATL and carmaker BYD have invested in new plants in Hungary this year. Vucic has said that since 2020, China had been the single-largest investor in Serbia, and that its investment was up 30-fold over the past decade.
(Reporting by Xiuhao Chen and Ryan Woo; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
The European Court of Human Rights is an international court that hears cases related to human rights violations within its member states, ensuring compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Foreign investment refers to the investment made by individuals or entities in one country into business interests located in another country, often to gain a financial return.
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