Amid blossoming China-Hungary ties, economic opportunities will depend on cultural understanding

Name: China and Hungary hail ‘all-weather’ partnership as Xi Jinping gets red carpet treatment in Budapest
Uploaded: 2024-05-10T13:41:33.000Z
Duration: 3 min 51 s
Description: China and Hungary hail ‘all-weather’ partnership as Xi Jinping gets red carpet treatment in Budapest

After Xi Jinping’s Europe visit, Hungary could play ‘mediating’ US-China role, but obstacles remain

Beyond belt and road projects, both countries need to ‘understand’ each other better, experts say

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Chinese President Xi Jinping and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stand in front of the prime minister’s headquarters in Budapest, prior to their official talks Thursday. Photo: AFP

Orange Wang

Published: 9:41pm, 10 May 2024

A state-backed Chinese think tank on Europe said Hungary could play a “mediating role” between China and the United States if Donald Trump returns to the White House.

A “structural” competition between Beijing and Washington was unlikely to change after the US presidential election in November, meaning that the Hungarian government could face pressure under another Trump administration, which might limit the scope of its cooperation with China, said Kong Yuan, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has maintained “a very close” communication with the former president since they “share a similar world view”, he said.

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China and Hungary hail ‘all-weather’ partnership as Xi Jinping gets red carpet treatment in Budapest

Orban has lent his support to his long-time ally Trump’s bid to return to the White House after meeting with the former US president for about an hour in Mar-a-Lago, Florida in March.

“If Trump were to become the next president of America, I hope that Hungary can play the mediating role between China and America, and even among China, America and Europe,” Kong said during an event at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA) in Budapest on Wednesday.

The event was held hours before Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in the Hungarian capital for his first state visit to the central European country, which was also the last leg of his first European tour since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kong said that common ground on many issues, including the war in Ukraine, economic connectivity, and concerns over the liberal left culture in Western countries, had brought China and Hungary closer together.