Relations between the European Union and the Chinese Communist Party have taken a marked turn for the worse in the past few months over Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and the parliamentary approval process for a comprehensive investment agreement with China was put on hold earlier. However, the Hungarian government, one of the EU member states, signed a cooperation agreement with Shanghai’s Fudan University late last month to build the EU’s first overseas branch of Fudan University south of the capital Budapest and to enroll more than 6,000 students of various nationalities, including Chinese and Hungarian. According to the latest poll, 80% of the respondents believe that Fudan University should not be built.
Recently, Direkt36, an independent Hungarian investigative journalist center, cited internal government documents, saying that the project cost was as high as nearly 1.9 billion U.S. dollars, of which the Hungarian central government financed 300 million U.S. dollars and the rest 1.5 billion U.S. dollars was provided by the China Development Bank in the form of loans, forming a debt trap at any time, repeating the same mistake as Sri Lanka, leaving the country firmly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Moreover, the construction materials were all procured by China and fully contracted by the Chinese Construction Group, in total violation of EU procurement rules.
The incident has aroused strong public opinion against the local community, and according to the latest poll, 80% of the local respondents believe that the Fudan branch should not be built. The mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, and others who met with officials in charge of the project made their opposition clear, saying they would use all legal and political means to prevent the authorities from passing the agreement to build the Fudan campus.
Budapest mayor: plan may endanger Hungary’s national security
The Hungarian media reported that on May 17, Gergely Karacsony, mayor of Budapest and Krisztina Baranyi, governor of the 9th district of the left-of-center Green Party (Dialogue for Hungary), expressed at a press conference their opposition to and concern about Fudan University’s move to the city. He also said that the government has not been able to provide the necessary support. He also said that the government has been reluctant to talk to the Budapest City Council about the details of the construction plan.
Karasonyi also said at the conference that although Fudan University is an internationally important university, its charter requires it to represent the world view of the Chinese Communist Party. The government’s decision would pose a “very serious national security risk” to Hungary.
Karasonyi went on to say that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had reneged on his previous political promise not to invest in any project that the mayor of Budapest opposed.
As for the governor of the 9th district, Barany said he would use a referendum and all legal means to stop the plan from going through.
Barany also said that the government had promised to build a student residence for more than 8,000 people on the site, but the Fudan campus plan would occupy the site and the original student residence plan became a paper project.
China’s serious plan to infiltrate Hungary becomes a Trojan horse
According to a report by Szabolcs Pani, a reporter for Direkt36, Hungary’s independent investigative journalist center, the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration in Hungary is so serious that local Chinese students are often recruited by the authorities in various ways to become spies and carry out infiltration work in all walks of life.
The report also pointed out that the misuse of passports has become a national security problem. Since 2012, about 20,000 foreigners have gone through the so-called “golden visa” program to buy Hungarian passports and thus obtain the right of residence in the European Union, and more than 80 percent of them are Chinese citizens.
Passport abuse has become a hidden problem for the Hungarian state. The picture shows that in recent years, advertisements about obtaining Hungarian passports can be seen everywhere on the Internet on various social media platforms. (Screenshot of Youtube advertisement)
The report also quoted Katalin Cseh, a member of the European Parliament and member of the Momentum Movement, a Hungarian opposition party, as saying that Fudan University’s plans for a branch campus would become a ‘Trojan horse’ within the EU. Trojan horses’ within the EU, and that it is a high risk when Hungary puts China’s interests above the EU interests or above its own interests (It is a high risk when Hungary puts China’s interests above the EU interests). ‘s interests above the EU interests, or above its own country’s interests.
She also pointed out that the plan’s potentially huge debt problem and Fudan’s lack of academic freedom would seriously jeopardize Hungary’s national security.
Katharine Cech, 32, was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and is a member of the centrist liberal party Energy Link. She spoke earlier in the European Parliament as a member of parliament in support of the people of Hong Kong and Xinjiang, asking the EU to stand together to defend its democratic values and confront the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party.
Hungary’s crackdown on press freedom is a major stumbling block for the EU
Commentators say that since Prime Minister Viktor Orban took office in 2010, the country has experienced a regression in democracy and a shift to authoritarianism. He has also cracked down on press freedom in Hungary, gradually tightening the “fourth power” monitoring of the media. Last July, independent news network INDEX editor-in-chief Szabolcs Dull was fired, and three editors and more than 80 staff members resigned en masse after unsuccessful calls for his reinstatement. When the staff left the office, they accused the company of apparently succumbing to government pressure, fearing that future editorial independence would be threatened, so they decided to leave. The incident prompted thousands of citizens to march to the Prime Minister’s Office to protest in solidarity with INDEX’s editorial staff.
According to Reporters Without Borders’ 2020 World Press Freedom Index, Hungary ranks 89th out of 180 countries and territories, one of the worst among European and European Union member states in terms of press freedom, and even lower than Hong Kong (80th), which has been regressing.
Oban is also accused of suppressing the grassroots, first in 2018 in Parliament will be criticized as a “slave law” of the Labor Reform Act, giving employers more power to require employees to work overtime from 250 hours a year to as much as 400 hours, and to extend the period of delayed labor to three years.
In addition, the Hungarian government accepted anti-epidemic supplies from the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the context of the CPC virus epidemic, and bypassed the EU’s authorization for emergency use of the CPC (national medicine) vaccine. Prime Minister Vladimir Orban even received the Chinese vaccine.
The Hungarian government has accepted anti-epidemic supplies from the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the context of the CPC virus epidemic, and has bypassed the EU’s authorization for the emergency use of the CPC (national) vaccine. Pictured is a nurse preparing the state medicine vaccine at a vaccination center at a senior citizens’ club in Budapest on February 25, 2021. (Attila Kisbenedek/ AFP)
However, in addition to the issues of press freedom and the epidemic, Hungary has recently vetoed twice the EU’s proposal for a joint declaration concerning Hong Kong, completely departing from the principle of EU solidarity on the China issue. At a press conference on May 10, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas severely criticized Hungary for its “absolutely incomprehensible” decision to block the EU’s planned joint statement on the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on pro-democracy activities in Hong Kong.
Therefore, it is believed that Hungary, which is a member of both the EU and NATO, has become a major stumbling block for the EU, deviating from the “EU’s universal values”.
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