On April 27, Hungary, a Central European country, signed an agreement with Shanghai Fudan University to open a Fudan branch in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, in 2024. This will be the only overseas branch of Fudan University and the first branch of a Chinese university in one of the 27 countries of the European Union. The move has raised concerns among some Hungarians about national security risks.
New project based on “One Belt, One Road” investment model
Official government documents obtained by the Hungarian investigative journalism center Direkt36 in April this year show that the Hungarian government plans to sign a contract with the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) to build a new campus.
In a draft presented by two ministers of the Hungarian Ministry of Innovation and Technology (ITM), the Hungarian government plans to allocate 300 million euros ($360 million) from the state budget to invest in the project, with the remaining 1.3 billion euros ($1.56 billion) to be financed by a loan from the China Development Bank (CDB), a preliminary financing proposal has been submitted.
The draft shows that the project will use Chinese construction materials and labor, while Hungary will have to pay the loan. Chinese contractors won’t even have to worry about another bidder beating them in open competition, because “the construction can only be carried out as an exclusively Chinese project.
The document also indicates that the project is based on the “Hungarian-Serbian Railway” model, i.e., the “Budapest-Belgrade Railway Investment Model”.
The railroad is part of the Communist Party’s “One Belt, One Road” project in Hungary, linking Budapest, the Hungarian capital, with Belgrade, the Serbian capital, for a total length of 350 kilometers (about 217.5 miles). The project is expected to invest $2.89 billion, with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) financing 85 percent of the project, and is described by the CCP as a landmark project in its cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony expressed strong opposition to Fudan’s plan to build a branch campus. He said, “Hungary owes our children more than 500 billion forints (about $1.6 billion) just to serve China’s (CCP’s) influence in Europe.”
Many opposition politicians in Hungary also expressed concern that this Chinese (CCP) state university would pose a threat to national security.
Everything in China is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party
In China, everything is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and schools are no exception. From primary to secondary schools there are party branches, while universities have party committees. The party secretary (in the administrative capacity of vice president) is the de facto first leader, and the president must obey the secretary’s decisions.
In December 2019, Fudan University’s drastic revision of the university’s constitution was extremely controversial. In addition to removing the reference to “freedom of thought” from the preamble of the new constitution, “academic independence” was moved after the new term “patriotic dedication,” and the terms “Party” and “Party” were added significantly. In addition to the deletion of “freedom of thought” in the preamble, “academic independence” has been moved to a new term “patriotic dedication,” while the ideological content of the CCP, such as “Party,” “socialism,” and “new era,” has been significantly added.
The amendment also highlights the “leadership of the Party Committee” and removes the word “independent” from the phrase “support the president in exercising his or her authority independently and responsibly.
The Chinese Communist Party uses Central and Eastern Europe as a springboard to infiltrate Western Europe
As early as 2012, the CCP launched the 16+1 Cooperation, a regional cooperation framework with 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and Hungary was one of the first countries to join the 16+1 Cooperation mechanism. In 2017, the bilateral trade volume between China and Hungary exceeded USD 10 billion. The Hungarian government has repeatedly objected to the EU’s criticism of the human rights situation in the CCP.
Of the 16 countries, 11 are EU countries and 5 are non-EU countries, with a significant proportion of former socialist countries.
The CCP has been active in investing in Central and Eastern Europe. From the Baltic states to the Balkans, well-funded Chinese (Communist) companies are buying real estate and competing for contracts to build public infrastructure there. They are also investing in the manufacture of products such as electronics and chemicals to gain a foothold in Europe’s vast single market.
By the end of June last year, the CCP had invested a total of $3.05 billion directly and more than $12 billion indirectly in Central and Eastern European countries.
Ma Changlin, former economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Poland, has claimed that the CCP “intends to use the region as a springboard to enter the EU and other countries.
Chinese Communist Party steals technology from British universities
More and more Britons are realizing the extent of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of their country. Not only are the elite of society being corrupted by the Chinese Communist Party to serve them, but British universities have also become a source of cutting-edge technology for the Chinese Communist Party, including such prestigious schools as Cambridge and Imperial College.
In the last decade, about 500 CCP military researchers have gone to British universities to study military-sensitive technologies such as jet planes, super computers, missiles, and stealth paint technology for tanks.
The April 2019 issue of Shenzhou Scholars, a magazine headed by the CCP’s Ministry of Education, also publicly acknowledged that the National University of Defense Technology sends 3-8 students to Cambridge each year to study for doctoral degrees.
The University of Defense Technology (UDFT) is the first higher military engineering school after the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, and was formerly known as the Military Engineering College of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Harbin, or “Harbin Military Engineering”. The collaboration between the University of Defense Technology and the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, known for its quantum information research, includes the project “Creating the Next Generation Supercomputer.
In February 2015, the National University of Defense Technology was blacklisted by the U.S. Department of Commerce for its Tianhe-1A and Tianhe-2 supercomputers, which were suspected of conducting simulated nuclear explosions.
A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASUI), an Australian think tank, shows that at least four of China’s 12 state-owned military-industrial conglomerates have significant operations at overseas universities. They have managed to increase access to world-class training, expertise and technology through exchanges and joint laboratories with foreign universities.
These overseas universities include The University of Manchester (UK), Imperial College London, University of Exeter, University of Birmingham, the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Nottingham.
There is also information that Imperial College London and Harbin Institute of Technology, known as one of the “Seven Schools of National Defense” have cooperation; the University of Glasgow (University of Glasgow) has cooperation with the University of Electronic Science and Technology, which has a military background.
The Times reported in October 2019 that the National Cyber Security Centre and National Infrastructure Protection Centre at the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) told UK universities that “actors in hostile countries are targeting UK universities to steal personal data, research data and intellectual property that could be used for their own military, commercial and dictatorial interests.”
To prevent Chinese Communist spies, the UK announced earlier this year that it was tightening visas for Chinese students or researchers who “may be engaged in espionage” and that existing visas could even be revoked.
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