Hungary Extends Warm Welcome to Top Chinese Diplomat
Wang Yi’s visit to Budapest comes as Beijing is looking for friends in Europe
China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, visited Hungary, one of Beijing’s staunchest European partners, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban signaled Budapest’s determination to strengthen ties with Beijing despite U.S. concern over growing Chinese investment in the country.
The visit stood in contrast to other meetings during Mr. Wang’s weeklong visit to Europe, where he aims to strengthen ties on the continent at a time of growing tension with the U.S.
In Budapest, Mr. Orban held talks with Mr. Wang over dinner, and on Monday he met Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.
“When we have faced crises in recent years, Hungary has always come out of them stronger than it went into them, but Hungarian-Chinese cooperation has played an absolutely indispensable role in this,” Mr. Szijjártó said. Hungary is a prime destination for Chinese investment, and Chinese-Hungarian trade now exceeds $10 billion, he added.
The visit signaled how, even as the Biden administration seeks to maintain Western unity in the face of Russian aggression, Washington’s attempts to shape Europe’s approach to China faces an obstacle in Mr. Orban. The five-term prime minister, who has governed Hungary for half of its post-Communist history, was the first in the European Union to sign a Belt-and-Road memorandum with Beijing, which financed a Chinese-built rail line connecting the country to Serbia.
His country hosts Huawei Technologies Co.’s largest supply center outside China, despite U.S. pressure to ban the tech company. After expelling Budapest’s Central European University, a U.S.-accredited college founded by liberal billionaire George Soros, Mr. Orban agreed to host Shanghai’s Fudan University, whose Hungarian campus would become the first Chinese university in the European Union.
Other neighbors—Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland—have meanwhile turned more hawkish toward Beijing, concerned about Europe’s economic vulnerability to an authoritarian state they see as aligned with Moscow.
“What’s going on in the European Union today is, I think, what the people in Brussels call decoupling, or isolation, or a breaking off of ties. And there are proposals to initiate such a policy in relation to China,” Mr. Orban told Chinese state media last month. “That would be a very big mistake. It would be a huge European mistake.”
r. Orban’s growing ties with China have complicated European efforts to treat Beijing as what Brussels calls “an economic competitor and a systemic rival.” His government has blocked the EU from formally criticizing Beijing’s clampdown in Hong Kong, prompting criticism from Germany and other countries that feel the Hungarian prime minister is obstructing the 27-nation union from crafting a unified stance on China.
Hungary’s stance on China has yielded benefits for Budapest. Last year, Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. announced it was building a €7 billion battery factory, equivalent to $7.5 billion, in Debrecen in eastern Hungary.
The Hungarian prime minister’s stance toward China underscores Budapest’s broader skepticism of Western priorities, including shedding dependence on Russian energy and sending military aid to Ukraine. On Saturday, Mr. Orban accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of instigating the conflict in Ukraine, adding that Washington was attempting to “do whatever it takes to press the Hungarians into the camp of war.”
“The war in Ukraine is not a war between the armies of good and evil, but a war between the troops of two Slavic countries,” he said. “It is their war, not ours.”
At his dinner with Mr. Wang, Mr. Orban congratulated Chinese President Xi Jinping for securing a third term, and shared his thoughts on the war in Ukraine.
“Orban said that Hungary unswervingly pursues a friendly policy toward China and attaches great importance to cooperation with China in various fields,” China’s foreign ministry said, in a statement Monday. “China appreciates Hungary’s active support…This policy of Hungary not only conforms to the interests of the people of China and Hungary, but also conforms to the fundamental long-term interests of Europe.”
The visit in Budapest is the last stop before Mr. Wang heads to Moscow, where he is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Chinese-Russian partnership in the midst of the Ukraine war.
Write to Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com and Drew Hinshaw at drew.hinshaw@wsj.com