Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Kosovo constitute the Western Balkan countries and have been renewing their applications for EU membership for many years. They are finding soluti-ons to the problems stemming from their internal dynamics and trying to have the conditions for integration into EU membership. The EU, on the other hand, values the geostrategic location of the Western Balkan countries and states that it wants regional cooperation. It encourages the criteria for countries to adapt to the EU’s norms and values and produces projects to contribute to the stability and prosperity of the region. However, the fact that the EU’s expansion efforts last for many years and have strict bureaucratic rules creates space for count-ries that want diplomatic and economic closeness with the region. On the other hand, China looks at the countries in the region from a geostrategic perspective due to their proximity to EU markets and their weak economies that need to be supported. China, which adopts a multi-layered approach towards the Western Balkan countries, is increasing its cooperation with the countries in many areas such as politics, economy, culture and education. While the EU continues to be the main trade partner of the countries in the region; China has managed to be-come the third largest trade partner. Because countries that can be a balancing factor with the EU are an important center for China’s increasing investments in the Balkans and its influence to spread to Europe. The study focuses on the rise of diplomatic-economic relations between Western Balkan countries and China and the positive and negative reflections of this situation on the EU members-hip process. On the one hand, the prolongation of the EU membership process weakens the EU’s influence/desire on the countries; on the other hand, China deepens its relations with Western Balkan countries with its economic power. Indeed, the possibility of China’s economic investments being long-term may re-veal a valid Chinese influence in Europe. Therefore, China’s increasing influence has the power to be a covert obstacle for Western Balkan countries to fulfill EU membership conditions.