{"id":47082,"date":"2024-05-09T17:25:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T17:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/09\/in-budapest-xi-hails-a-deep-friendship-with-hungary\/"},"modified":"2024-05-09T17:25:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T17:25:12","slug":"in-budapest-xi-hails-a-deep-friendship-with-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/09\/in-budapest-xi-hails-a-deep-friendship-with-hungary\/","title":{"rendered":"In Budapest, Xi Hails a \u2018Deep Friendship\u2019 With Hungary"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/09\/multimedia\/09xi-europe-01-qvmf\/09xi-europe-01-qvmf-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"In Budapest, Xi Hails a \u2018Deep Friendship\u2019 With Hungary\" title=\"In Budapest, Xi Hails a \u2018Deep Friendship\u2019 With Hungary\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday found another safe zone in a continent increasingly wary of his country, meeting in Budapest with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, the European Union\u2019s perennial odd-man-out as a vocal supporter of warm relations with both China and Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As happened at <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/08\/world\/europe\/xi-jinping-china-serbia-visit.html\" title=\"\">his previous stop in Serbia<\/a>, Mr. Xi received a rapturous welcome and was spared from protesters, with his motorcade from the airport on Wednesday evening taking a roundabout route into the Hungarian capital, avoiding Tibetan protesters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Police banned a protest planned for Thursday in the center of Budapest and a large Tibetan flag that had been hoisted on a hill overlooking the venue of a welcome reception was covered with a Chinese one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In an article in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/magyarnemzet.hu\/velemeny\/2024\/05\/kina-es-magyarorszag-egyutt-lep-az-arany-vizi-utra\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Magyar Nemzet<\/a>, which is controlled by Mr. Orban\u2019s governing Fidesz party, Mr. Xi gushed about his \u201cdeep friendship\u201d with Hungarian leaders and described Hungary as a trusted \u201ctraveling companion\u201d on what he called a \u201cgolden voyage\u201d that had taken relations to their \u201cbest period of history.\u201d Hungary, he noted, was \u201cthe No. 1 target in the central Eastern European region for Chinese investment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Chinese leader\u2019s arrival in Budapest sealed Mr. Orban\u2019s long, steady transformation from an anti-communist liberal firebrand once funded by the Hungarian-born American financier George Soros into one of the Chinese Communist Party leadership\u2019s most fervent admirers and protectors in Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2000, during his first term as prime minister, Mr. Orban met in Budapest with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, but is now a persistent opponent within the European Union of any criticism of Chinese policies in Tibet, Hong Kong and the western region of Xinjiang, home to the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2019\/11\/16\/world\/asia\/china-xinjiang-documents.html\" title=\"\">persecuted Uyghur minority<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hungary infuriated fellow members of the European bloc in 2021 by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/hungary-blocks-eu-statement-criticising-china-over-hong-kong-diplomats-say-2021-04-16\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">blocking a statement<\/a> criticizing Beijing\u2019s crackdown on protests in Hong Kong. It has repeatedly worked to water down any condemnation of China\u2019s human rights record, with Mr. Orban scolding fellow E.U. leaders for <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/2015-2022.miniszterelnok.hu\/samizdat-no-9\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cfrivolous\u201d<\/a> behavior toward a rising economic and military superpower he sees as vital for Europe\u2019s future prosperity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Theresa Fallon, director of the Center for Russia, Europe Asia, a Brussels research group, said Mr. Orban had become \u201cChina\u2019s go-to person in the E.U. to block or water down anything that they don\u2019t like. He has used up a lot of political chips in Brussels to help China.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Already a major center for German carmakers, Hungary is now looking to Chinese investment to establish itself as Europe\u2019s premier manufacturing hub for electric vehicles, batteries and other new technologies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">BYD, China\u2019s E.V. juggernaut, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/12\/22\/business\/byd-china-hungary.html\" title=\"\">announced in December that it would build an assembly plant in Hungary, its first production facility in Europe.<\/a> <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gwm-global.com\/global\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Great Wall Motor<\/a>, another big Chinese E.V. company, is looking into building an even bigger factory in Hungary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Orban was the only European Union leader to attend an October gathering in Beijing of world leaders, including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, celebrating China\u2019s Belt and Road infrastructure program, Mr. Xi\u2019s pet foreign policy initiative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Xi, in his article in Magyar Nemzet, said China wanted to work closely with Hungary on Belt and Road projects and promised to \u201cspeed up\u201d construction of a high-speed train between Budapest and the Serbian capital, Belgrade. The railway line, China\u2019s flagship infrastructure project in the region, has been snarled by regulatory and other issues and progressed at a snail\u2019s pace during five years of work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The shift toward China by Mr. Orban and his once strongly anti-communist Fidesz party began in 2011, soon after he returned to power for a second, now 14 years long, stint as prime minister, with the announcement of a new foreign policy direction known as \u201cEastern Opening\u201d that was aimed at attracting investment from Asia, primarily China.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere has been a 180-degree turnaround in Fidesz and its voters,\u201d said Tamas Matura, an expert on Hungarian-Chinese relations at Corvinus University of Budapest. But unlike in Serbia, where opinion polls show strong public support for China, \u201cthe majority of people in Hungary are not big supporters,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Thanks to his party\u2019s tight grip on most Hungarian news media outlets, Mr. Orban has managed to mute domestic criticism of China. But he has faced a delicate balancing act with admirers in the United States, including former President Donald J. Trump, who has made bashing Beijing a central part of his domestic political message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">An annual gathering in Budapest of the Conservative Political Action Committee, a Trump-aligned American organization, has had to tiptoe around the issue of China and focus instead on building what its <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cpachungary.com\/en\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">most recent edition last month<\/a> declared a \u201ccoalition of pro-peace, antiglobalist forces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump sent a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=r4vF6sKj5gg\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">video message<\/a> praising Mr. Orban as \u201ca great man\u201d working to \u201csave Western civilization\u201d from \u201cthe communists, Marxists and fascists.\u201d He made no mention of China, the world\u2019s largest communist-led country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Casting China as an ally in the \u201canti-woke\u201d cause, Zoltan Kiszelly of a Fidesz-funded Hungarian research group, told Magyar Nemzet on Thursday that Hungary and China shared a commitment to family values, opposition to immigration and support of \u201cpeace.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Barnabas Heincz contributed reporting from Budapest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/09\/world\/europe\/xi-jinping-china-hungary-orban.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday found another safe zone in a continent increasingly wary of his country, meeting in Budapest with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, the European Union\u2019s perennial odd-man-out as a vocal supporter of warm relations with both China and Russia. As happened at his previous stop in Serbia, Mr. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/09\/multimedia\/09xi-europe-01-qvmf\/09xi-europe-01-qvmf-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47840,2481,47841,10272,13505],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47082"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47084,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47082\/revisions\/47084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}