Beijing’s education programs are reshaping perceptions among Balkan youth, as soft power extends beyond infrastructure
As China’s massive investments come under scrutiny across Europe, Beijing is turning to a softer form of influence in the Balkans: scholarships, university exchanges and young students sharing life in China with audiences at home. This includes China-funded study opportunities, which offer tuition scholarships, monthly stipends and access to fast-growing universities. Many of these students have also shared their experiences on social media, where they have a sizeable following, while others have appeared in Chinese media or official institutions. “I applied [to the Chinese language course] for fun, because it was a new language I had never learned,” Era Kërnaja, a 24-year-old from northern Albania who is now studying computer science at the Kunming University of Science and Technology in China’s Yunnan province, told Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL).
“If someone asked me a question three years ago, I would have said that China is communism, a closed country, that’s it. But now my [opinion] has changed 360 degrees,” she said.
While Beijing is best known in the region for billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, loans and technology partnerships, education has emerged as a softer channel through which China is shaping perceptions. This is particularly pronounced among younger generations, who polls show are more receptive to Beijing’s portrayal of itself as a benevolent and responsible power. “I wanted to change the way Albanians think about China and tell them not to believe everything you see,” said Kërnaja, who since 2023 – when she began living in China – has been posting about her experiences on her TikTok account and now has more than 8,000 followers.
For Beijing, analysts say, these programs serve a long-term purpose: cultivating personal networks, favorable narratives, and future professionals who have direct experience from China and are willing to share it in their own countries.
This soft power push is an important complement to China’s growing political and economic influence in the Balkans and could lead to more receptive audiences to China’s efforts to expand its economic reach and advance its interests. “Beijing has an interest in sending as many international students and scholars to China as possible,” Stefan Vladisavljev, an expert on Beijing’s role in the Balkans at the BFPE Foundation, a Belgrade-based think tank, told REL. “It [China] is trying to position itself as a provider of development [and] being present in Europe is a very important aspect of its global reach.”
The experience of Kërnaja reflects a broader trend developing in the Balkans, where Chinese educational opportunities have also sparked interest in countries like Albania and Kosovo, which remain strongly pro-Western in their political orientation, due to historical American support for their statehood and democracy.
Albania and Kosovo – linked by shared political, linguistic and cultural ties – are the most difficult places for Chinese penetration in the Balkans. Beijing’s Regional influence has generally extended from Serbia, where Belgrade has attracted billions of dollars in investment and built deep political ties. Serbia stands out as China’s most advanced educational partner in the Region, with three Confucius Institutes supporting Chinese language teaching in dozens of schools. In the Institute’s 20-year history in Serbia, the number of participants has grown from a few dozen to several hundred each year, and educational cooperation has been strengthened by several new agreements between the two countries signed in 2018. “If China has a stronghold in the Western Balkans, it also has a stronghold in Europe,” Vladisavljev said.
But Chinese soft power, mainly through educational programs and social media outreach, is also scoring some early successes elsewhere in the Region.
The Confucius Institute in Albania, where Kërnaja learned Chinese and received guidance on applying for her scholarship, is one of the most visible channels of educational exchange within the University of Tirana. It describes itself as a “non-governmental, non-profit educational institute,” co-organized with Beijing Foreign Studies University, that offers Chinese language lessons and cultural programs. It also offers scholarships and helps students apply at various levels, including to individual universities or at the federal and national levels within China. These institutes exist throughout the Western Balkans, except for Kosovo, whose independence is not recognized by China and therefore has no official representation from Beijing.
Confucius Institutes are under increasing scrutiny across Europe, with some governments closing them down due to concerns about academic freedom and political influence.
But across much of the Balkans, they are increasingly seen by young people as valuable launching pads for pursuing economic and educational opportunities. Experts who follow Chinese engagement in the region say the stories and personal experiences shared by local students studying in China are influential and appear to be following a model copied by other Western countries, including the United States. “China is taking a page from the book of the country that did soft power best — the United States,” Vladisavljev said.
SCHOLARSHIPS, EXCHANGES AND RESTRICTED DATA
China’s educational engagement in the Balkans is built on a patchwork of programs: Chinese government scholarships, grants linked to Confucius Institutes, university-level agreements, and short-term training courses. Because programs vary greatly by country and year — and because Chinese and Balkan institutions do not publish comprehensive data — there is no clear public record of how many Balkan students have studied in China over the years.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty found that some Albanian students studying in China have also appeared on Chinese state media, including China Radio International (CRI), the Albanian edition of China’s main state broadcaster (CGTN), where they have shared very positive accounts of their experiences. Public opinion polls in Albania, including the Albania Security Barometer, show that views of China remain largely neutral, although positive perceptions have increased slightly in recent years.
Meanwhile, despite the lack of institutional cooperation in Kosovo, individual students – often from the diaspora spread across Europe and North America – have found their way to China and are sharing their experiences with the country’s young population. Vlera Kelmendi, who was born in Kosovo and migrated to Norway, told local Kosovo television ATV in an interview in 2025 that she chose China out of curiosity, describing a very positive experience there. Kelmendi, who declined to speak to REL, documents her life in China on her public TikTok account with more than 16 followers, reaching audiences in Kosovo, where public opinion towards China remains largely negative.
On the other hand, although there are no official Chinese courses in Kosovo, officials at the Confucius Institute in Tirana said they have noticed a growing interest from Kosovo students. “We would really like to see students from Kosovo learn Chinese,” Zheng Baoguo, director of the Confucius Institute in Tirana, told Radio Free Europe. “We will try our best to create opportunities for them, if they are willing.”
WHEN STUDYING ABROAD BECOME DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
Less than two hours away from Kosovo, Kadir Ismajli, a 26-year-old student from North Macedonia, took a much more direct route to China. While initially looking to study elsewhere, the Albanian-born student said he received a Chinese government scholarship for a master’s degree in Yunnan province, where he received help from the embassy in the application process. Like the others, Ismajli has built a following of more than 31,000 on TikTok, where he also posts about his life in China.
“I started TikTok for business, but when I see something interesting here, I post it,” he said. “People at home tell me that we didn’t know what China was really like.”
Over the past decade, about 100 Macedonian students have studied in China through language programs and full-time study programs. A study on Chinese influence in North Macedonia, conducted by the Skopje-based organization Estima, found that “the perception of China’s reputation in North Macedonia is a mixed picture that tends to be more positive among people who have had direct experience and interaction with China and Chinese actors.” According to Estima data from 2005, the number of Chinese scholarships for North Macedonian students has been increasing.
Chinese language education programs are also making inroads into other Western Balkan countries. Montenegro has had a Confucius Institute since 2015 and has sent more than 100 students to China during that period, according to a report by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is a formal agreement on educational exchanges with China, and Chinese-funded programs continue to grow, particularly through the University of East Sarajevo, where more than 170 students have participated in exchange programs in China.
Among this group is Ana Jasarevic, a 23-year-old student at the Chinese language department at the University of East Sarajevo. She spent the past year at Wuhan University with several other colleagues from the faculty. “When we arrived, it was a bit of a culture shock because it’s completely different,” she said. After graduating, she now says she plans to enroll in a master’s program in China. “I liked it there, although I understand that many people don’t like the way it works,” she said. “I’ve been to many cities, I’ve traveled around the country, and I’ve felt safe everywhere.” (RFE)