说到塞尔维亚，很多人可能不熟悉。但是提到1999年北约轰炸中国驻南斯拉夫大使馆事件（United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade），你们一定不会忘记。
1999年5月8日凌晨，北约的美国B-2轰炸机发射使用三枚精确制导炸弹或联合直接攻击弹药击中了位于塞尔维亚首都贝尔格莱德的中华人民共和国驻南斯拉夫联盟大使馆。
在这场轰炸中，三名中国记者当场死亡，数十人受伤，大使馆建筑严重损毁。
牺牲的三人分别是：48岁的新华社记者邵云环、31岁的光明日报记者许杏虎、和他28岁的妻子朱颖。
而塞尔维亚就是前南斯拉夫的中心主体国。南斯拉夫解体后，塞尔维亚成为独立国家。
除却这段共同的记忆，这个历经苦难并且仍在忍受苦难的国家，还是中国在中东欧地区首个建立全面战略伙伴关系的国家，也是首个对华实质性全面免签的欧洲国家。
今天，在贝尔格莱德市政府的大使馆旧址处，立起了一块黑色的纪念碑，用塞尔维亚文和中文写着：
“谨此感谢中华人民共和国在塞尔维亚共和国人民最困难的时刻给予的支持和友谊，并谨此缅怀罹难烈士。”
，BBC发布了一篇追溯这场轰炸的文章，讲述了后的前使馆旧址现状：
On a sunny day in late April, more than a dozen fresh bouquets were stacked up neatly against the memorial stone, but Shen Hong still felt compelled to re-arrange them. He comes to the site of the embassy bombing regularly, to remember his friends that died. But these days, its rare that he is alone.
这是4月下旬的一个晴朗的日子，轰炸事件纪念碑前放了十几束鲜花。沈红不由自主地要去重新整理这些花束。他常常到被炸使馆旧址来凭吊他死去的朋友们
Busloads of Chinese tourists arrive every day to gaze at the memorial and the statue of the Chinese sage and philosopher Confucius that now stands nearby.
他并不孤单。每天都有一车车的中国游客来到此地，看这块纪念碑，还有附近的孔子塑像。
A young Chinese couple, Zhang and He, were in Belgrade for their honeymoon and decided to visit the memorial. They are around the same age that Xu Xinghu and Zhu Ying were when they were killed in 1999. "Three of our countrymen died here. We knew about this since we were kids and we came to see it," said He.
一对来贝尔格莱德度蜜月的年轻中国夫妇，小张和小何，也来此地凭吊。他们与许杏虎和朱颖死去时的年龄差不多大。“三位我们的同胞在这里死去，我们小时候就知道这事，所以现在要来看看，”小何说。
Yang, a guide who was leading some 30 middle-aged Chinese tourists on a two-week bus tour through the Balkans, said the embassy site was a mandatory stop. "Our embassy was destroyed by Americans. Every Chinese knows this."
一位姓杨的导游带着三十几名中年中国游客，乘巴士在巴尔干地区进行为期两周的观光。他说，使馆旧址是必来的一站。“我们的使馆被美国人炸毁了，所有中国人都知道。”
In 1999, China was not the economic, technological and military giant it is now. It was focused on getting wealthy and had a much less visible foreign policy. But 20 years later the country knows it sits at the top table with America and its ambitions around the world reflect that.
1999年时，中国还没有成为一个经济、技术和军事上的超级大国。当时，中国一心致富，其外交政策远远没有今天这样令人瞩目。但后，中国意识到自己已经和美国一样成为世界顶级强国，开始在全球范围内展现其野心。
The Belgrade embassy site is being turned into a Chinese cultural centre that will be one of the biggest in Europe. The symbolism is hard to miss: a site of national humiliation and tragedy at the hands of the West re-born as a shiny edifice to Chinas glorious history.
被炸使馆的旧址被重新开发，将成为欧洲最大的中国文化中心之一。其象征意义不言自明：一块在西方霸权下经历屈辱和悲剧的土地浴火重生，成为展现中国灿烂历史的闪亮殿堂。
——The night the US bombed a Chinese embassy
