Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday found another safe haven on a continent increasingly wary of his country, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the European Union’s longtime maverick and vocal proponent of warm relations with the two countries. I met with him in Budapest. China and Russia.
As in his previous trip to Serbia, Mr. Xi received an enthusiastic welcome and fled the protesters as his motorcade departed the airport on Wednesday night, taking a detour to avoid Tibetan protesters and take a detour to Hungary. entered the capital.
Police banned a protest planned for Thursday in central Budapest, and a large Tibetan flag that had been flown on a hill overlooking the welcome reception venue was draped with a Chinese flag.
In an article in the Magyar Nemzet newspaper, which is controlled by Orbán’s Fidesz party, Mr. Xi gushed about his “deep friendship” with Hungarian leaders, calling Hungary a reliable “travel companion” on what he called a “golden journey.” ” It had something to do with their “best time in history.” He pointed out that Hungary is “the biggest target for Chinese investment in the Central and Eastern European region.”
The Chinese leader’s arrival in Budapest has transformed Mr. Orbán from an anti-communist liberal agitator once funded by Hungarian-born American investor George Soros to one of the most ardent admirers of the Chinese Communist Party leadership in Europe. He has undergone a long and steady transformation into one of the guardians.
During his first term as prime minister in 2000, Mr. Orbán met with the exiled Tibetan leader Dalai Lama in Budapest, but now he is resistant to any criticism of China’s policies in Tibet, Hong Kong and China within the European Union. I’m against it. An area in western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, home to the persecuted Uyghur minority.
In 2021, Hungary blocked a statement criticizing Beijing’s crackdown on protests in Hong Kong, infuriating other member states in the European bloc. Orbán has repeatedly sought to soften criticism of China’s human rights record, scolding other EU leaders for “frivolous” actions against a rising economic and military superpower he views as essential to Europe’s future prosperity. I’ve been working on it.
Theresa Fallon, director of the Center for Russia, Europe and Asia, a research group in Brussels, said Orbán has become “the go-to person in the EU to block or water down anything China doesn’t like.” . He used up a lot of his political chips in Brussels to help China. ”
Hungary is already a major hub for German automakers, but it is now eyeing investment from China to establish itself as Europe’s premier manufacturing hub for electric vehicles, batteries and other new technologies. .
In December, Chinese EV major BYD announced that it would build an assembly plant in Hungary, its first production facility in Europe. Another Chinese EV giant, Great Wall Motors, is considering building an even larger factory in Hungary.
Mr. Orban was the only person to attend an October meeting in Beijing of world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, celebrating China’s Belt and Road infrastructure project, Mr. Xi’s foreign policy specialty. He was the leader of the European Union.
In an article in the Magyar Nemzet newspaper, Xi said China wants to work closely with Hungary on Belt and Road projects and promised to “accelerate” the construction of a high-speed railway between Budapest and Serbia’s capital Belgrade. China’s flagship infrastructure project in the region, the rail line, has been plagued by regulatory and other issues and has moved at a snail’s pace during its five-year construction period.
The China-oriented shift by Mr. Orbán and his once strongly anti-communist Fidesz party began in 2011, shortly after he returned to power and has now been in office for 14 years, with a new foreign policy direction. announced their sexuality. He is known as the “Opening of the Eastern Ports” with the aim of attracting investment from Asia, mainly China.
“There has been a 180-degree turnaround between Fidesz and its voters,” said Tamás Matura, an expert on Hungarian-China relations at Budapest’s Corvinus University. But unlike Serbia, where opinion polls show strong public support for China, “the majority of Hungarians are not enthusiastic supporters,” he added.
Mr. Orbán has been able to suppress domestic criticism of China thanks to his party’s firm control over most of Hungary’s media outlets. But he has faced a delicate balancing act with allies in the United States, including former President Donald J. Trump, who has made bashing China a central part of his domestic political message.
The annual gathering in Budapest of the Conservative Political Action Committee, a U.S. organization aligned with President Trump, tiptoed around the China issue and instead proclaimed in its latest edition last month a “coalition of pro-peace and anti-globalists.” ” had to focus on building. Power. ”
Trump sent a video message praising Orbán as a “great man” working to “save Western civilization” from “communists, Marxists and fascists.” He did not mention China, the world’s largest communist-led country.
Zoltan Kizely of the Fidesz-funded Hungarian Research Group on Thursday positioned China as an ally of the “anti-woke” movement, saying Hungary and China share a commitment to family values, anti-immigration and support for “peace”. he told Magyar Nemzet. ”
Barnabas Heincz contributed reporting from Budapest.
