PRISTINA -- As China's big-ticket investments draw scrutiny across Europe, Beijing is turning to a quieter form of influence in the Balkans: scholarships, university exchanges, and young students who share their lives in China with audiences back home.
This involves Chinese-funded study opportunities that offer tuition-free degrees, stipends, and access to fast-growing universities. Many of those students have also shared their experiences on social media where they've built substantial followings, while others have been featured in official Chinese media or institutions.
"I applied [to a Chinese course] for fun, because it was a new language that I had never learned before," Era Kernaja, a 24-year-old from northern Albania who is now studying computer science at Kunming University of Science and Technology in China's Yunnan Province, told RFE/RL. "If someone asked me three years ago, I would have said China is a closed, Communist country, but now, [my view] has [completely] changed."
While Beijing is best known in the region for billions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects, loans, and technology partnerships, education has emerged as a quieter channel where China is shaping perceptions. That's especially true among younger generations, who polling shows are more receptive to Beijing's portrayal of itself as a benign and responsible power.
"I wanted to change the opinion that Albanians have about China and to tell them not to believe everything that you see," Kernaja said, who since living in China in 2023 has started posting about her experience on her TikTok account and now has a following of more than 8,000 people.
For Beijing, analysts say, these programs serve a longer-term purpose: cultivating personal networks, favorable narratives, and future professionals who have lived experience of China and are willing to share it back home. This soft power push provides an important complement to its growing political and economic influence in the Balkans and could yield more receptive audiences for China's efforts to expand its economic reach and assert its interests.
"Beijing has an interest in bringing as many international students and scientists as possible to China," Stefan Vladisavljev, an expert on Beijing's role in the Balkans at Foundation BFPE, a Belgrade-based think tank, told RFE/RL. "It's trying to position itself as a provider of development, [and] being present in Europe is a very important aspect of their global outreach."
China's Soft Power Reaches Unlikely Ground
Kernaja's experience reflects a broader trend playing out across the Balkans, where Chinese education opportunities have even sparked interest in countries like Albania and Kosovo that 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 unlikely spots for Chinese inroads in the Balkans. Beijing's regional influence has generally expanded out from Serbia, where Belgrade has courted billions of dollars in investment and forged deep political ties.
Serbia stands out as China's most advanced education partner in the region, hosting three Confucius Institutes and supporting Chinese-language teaching in dozens of schools. In its 20-year history in Serbia, the number of attendees has grown from several dozens to several hundred annually and education cooperation has been boosted by several new bilateral agreements signed in 2018.
"If China has a stronghold in the Western Balkans, it also has a stronghold in Europe," Vladisavlijev said.
But Chinese soft power, largely through educational programs and spread on social media, is also having some early successes elsewhere in the region.
The Confucius Institute in Albania, where Kernaja learned Chinese and got guidance to apply for her scholarship, is one of the most visible channels for educational exchange within the University of Tirana.
It describes itself as a "nongovernmental, nonprofit educational institute" co-hosted with Beijing Foreign Studies University, offering Chinese-language teaching and cultural programming. It also offers scholarships and helps students to apply at different levels, including at individual universities, or at the federal and national level within China.
Era Kernaja (right), a 24-year-old from northern Albania, now studies computer science at Kunming University of Science and Technology.
These institutes exist everywhere in the Western Balkans besides Kosovo, whose independence is not recognized by China and as a result has no formal representation from Beijing.
Confucius Institutes have come under growing scrutiny across Europe and elsewhere, with several governments shutting them down over concerns about academic freedom and political influence.
But across much of the Balkans, they are increasingly seen by young people as valuable launching pads to chase economic and educational opportunities.
Experts who track Chinese engagement in the region say personal stories and experiences shared from local students studying in China are having an impact and seem to follow a playbook copied from other Western countries, including the United States.
"China is taking a page from the book of the country that has been doing soft power the best: the United States," Vladisavlijev said.
Scholarships, Exchanges, and a Limited Paper Trail
China's education outreach in the Balkans is built on a patchwork of programs: Chinese government scholarships, Confucius Institute-linked grants, university-level agreements, and short-term training courses.
Because programs differ widely by country and year -- and because Chinese and local Balkan institutions do not publish comprehensive data -- there is no clear public record showing how many Balkan students have studied in China over time.
RFE/RL found that several Albanian students studying in China have also appeared in Chinese state media, including the Albanian affiliate of China Radio International (CRI), which is under the umbrella of China's main state broadcaster, CGTN, where they shared positive accounts of their experiences.
Public opinion surveys in Albania, including the Albania Security Barometer, show that views of China remain largely neutral, though positive perceptions have slightly increased in recent years.
Meanwhile, despite no institutional cooperation in Kosovo, individual students -- often from the diaspora spread across Europe and North America -- still find their way to China and share their experiences with the young population back in the country.
Vlera Kelmendi, a Kosovo-born student who migrated to Norway, told local television, ATV, in an interview in 2025 that she chose China out of curiosity while describing a very positive experience there.
Kelmendi, who declined to speak to RFE/RL, documents her life in China on her public TikTok account with more than 16,000 followers, reaching audiences in Kosovo where public opinion toward China still remains largely negative.
While there are no official Chinese courses in Kosovo, officials at the Confucius Institute in Tirana said they have observed growing interest from students in Kosovo.
"We would love to see students from Kosovo learn Chinese," Zheng Baoguo, director of the Confucius Institute in Tirana, told RFE/RL. "We will try our best to create opportunities for them if they are willing."
When Study Abroad Becomes Digital Outreach
Less than two hours from Kosovo, Kadir Ismajli, a 26-year-old student from North Macedonia, had a much straighter path to China.
While he originally was looking to study elsewhere, the ethnically Albanian student said he received a Chinese state scholarship for a master's degree in Yunnan Province through the help of his embassy.
Like others, Ismajli has built a following on TikTok of more than 31,000, where he posts about his life in China.
Kadir Ismajli, a student from North Macedonia, has built a large TikTok following about his life in China.
"I started TikTok for business, but when I see something interesting there, I post it," he said. "[Back home,] people tell me they didn't know what China was really like."
Over the past decade, around 100 Macedonian students have studied in China through language and full degree programs.
A study on Chinese influence in North Macedonia conducted by the Skopje-based think tank 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 stakeholders."
According to Estima's data, the number of China scholarships to North Macedonia students has been on an upward trend since 2005.
Chinese-language education programs are also making inroads elsewhere.
Montenegro has had a Confucius Institute since 2015 and has sent more than 100 students to China during that span, according to a report from the Center for European Policy Analysis.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, a formal agreement on education exchanges with China exists and Chinese-funded programs continue to grow, particularly through the University of East Sarajevo, where more than 170 students have participated in China-based exchange programs.
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She spent the past year at the University of Wuhan 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 that she plans to enroll for a master's degree in China.
"I liked it there, although I understand that many people don't like the way they operate," she said. "I've been to many cities, toured the country, and I felt safe everywhere."