Chinese President Xi Jinping found another safe zone on the continent Thursday when he met in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a perennial EU oddball who strongly supports friendship with both countries. relation. China and Russia.
as happened in His previous stops in SerbiaXi Jinping received a warm welcome and was not attacked by protesters, and his motorcade detoured from the airport into the Hungarian capital on Wednesday night to avoid Tibetan protesters.
Police banned a planned protest in central Budapest on Thursday, and a huge Tibetan flag hanging on a hill overlooking the venue for the welcome reception was covered by a Chinese flag.
in an article Mazhar NemzetXi Jinping, who is controlled by Orban’s ruling Fidesz party, touted his “deep friendship” with the Hungarian leader and described Hungary as a trustworthy “travel companion”, kicking off what he called ” “Golden Voyage” has brought relations between the two countries to a new height. “The best period in history.” He pointed out that Hungary is “China’s number one investment target in Central and Eastern Europe.”
The Chinese leader’s arrival in Budapest marks Orban’s long and steady transformation from an anti-communist liberal firebrand once funded by the Hungarian-born American financier George Soros to the Chinese Communist Party leadership’s most fervent admirer in Europe One of the protectors and protectors.
In 2000, during his first term as prime minister, Mr Orban met with the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama in Budapest, but he now staunchly opposes within the EU any criticism of China’s policies in Tibet, Hong Kong and Tibet . western Xinjiang region, The persecuted Uighur minority.
Hungary’s moves in 2021 anger other European bloc members blocking statement Criticized Beijing for cracking down on Hong Kong protests. It has repeatedly tried to downplay its condemnation of China’s human rights record, with Mr Orban rebuking other EU leaders: “frivolous” He believes that behavior against a rising economic and military superpower is crucial to Europe’s future prosperity.
Theresa Fallon, director of the Russia, Eurasia Center at the Brussels research group, said Orban has become “China’s go-to person in the EU to block or downplay anything they don’t like.” He has used a lot of political leverage in Brussels to help China. “
Hungary, already a major hub for German carmakers, is seeking Chinese investment to turn it into Europe’s premier manufacturing hub for electric cars, batteries and other new technologies.
BYD, Chinese electric car giant, It announced in December that it would build an assembly plant in Hungary, its first production plant in Europe. Great Wall MotorsAnother major Chinese electric car company is considering building a larger factory in Hungary.
Mr. Orban was the only EU leader to attend a gathering of world leaders in Beijing in October, including Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, that celebrated China’s The Belt and Road infrastructure plan, Xi Jinping’s favorite foreign policy initiative.
In an article published in the Hungarian newspaper, Xi Jinping stated that China hopes to cooperate closely with Hungary on the “Belt and Road” project and promised to “accelerate” the construction of a high-speed railway between Budapest and the Serbian capital Belgrade. The rail line, China’s flagship infrastructure project in the region, has been plagued by regulatory and other issues during its five-year construction process, making progress slow.
Mr Orban and his once fiercely anti-communist Fidesz party began turning to China in 2011, just after he had returned to power for a second term as prime minister (now for 14 years) and announced a new foreign policy direction known as For the “Opening to the East”, it aims to attract investment from Asia (mainly China).
“Fidesz and its voters have done a 180-degree turn,” said Tamas Matura, an expert on Hungary-China relations at Corvinus University in Budapest. But unlike Serbia, where opinion polls show strong public support for China, “the majority of people in Hungary are not strong supporters,” he added.
Mr Orban has succeeded in silencing domestic criticism of China thanks to his party’s tight control over most Hungarian news media. But he faces a delicate balancing act with American admirers, including former President Donald J. Trump, who has made bashing Beijing a central part of his domestic political message.
The Conservative Political Action Committee, a U.S. group aligned with Trump, had to tiptoe around China at its annual conference in Budapest to focus instead on building its own organization. Latest version last month Announced the establishment of an “alliance of forces supporting peace and anti-globalism.”
Mr. Trump sent a Video message Praising Mr Orban as “a great man” who worked to “save Western civilization” from “communists, Marxists and fascists”. He made no mention of China, the world’s largest Communist-led country.
Zoltan Kizeli, of the Fidesz-funded Hungarian research group, which sees China as an ally of the “counter-woke” cause, told Magyar Nemzet on Thursday that both Hungary and China were committed to family values and opposed immigration and supporting “peace.” ”
Barnabas Heincz contributed reporting from Budapest.
