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Due to the ongoing debate over the financial and security risks of the project, Hungary’s political opposition has pledged to block the construction of the first Chinese university in the European Union.
Budapest Mayor Ghergueli Karassonni hopes to run as prime minister of the opposition party in next year’s election. He promised to use “all possible legal and political means” to block the right-wing government’s plan to build a campus for Fudan University. In the capital.
This Shanghai-based institution ranks among the top 200 universities in the world and hopes to open a campus by 2024.
According to the plan, as many as 8,000 students will live and study in a huge facility on the Danube River.
The government that has promoted strengthening relations with Beijing in recent years insists that the project will put the country on the world’s education and investment map.
“The campus will raise the level of education and provide students with globally competitive knowledge, which will contribute to the sustainable growth of the Hungarian economy,” Zoltan Kovac, secretary of state for public diplomacy, told Al Jazeera.
Tamas Matura, assistant professor and China expert at Corvinus University in Budapest, agrees.
“The arrival of world-class universities is good news. China is an advanced high-tech country, so the project will provide Hungary with impetus in these areas,” he said.
However, Matura is not sure about the financial arrangements.
It was reported last month that Hungary would pay all 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) for the construction of the campus for the huge loan provided by Beijing.
These news will only make people more worried that the project will deepen Hungary’s dependence on China.
“The Fudan project is part of a broader government strategy to strengthen the alliance between Hungary and China,” said Gabor Gyori of Policy Solutions, a Budapest think tank.
In recent years, driven by the “not free” that has led to conflicts with the European Union and the United States, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has sought to strengthen Hungary’s ties with the East.
At the same time, China has been trying to use its huge fiscal firepower to try to gain influence in Central and Eastern Europe as part of its efforts to benefit within the EU and NATO.
Hungary is one of the few countries keen to accept cash.
It also reached an agreement to borrow 2 billion euros to build a high-speed railway to Serbia, another European country keen on the renminbi.
Critics pointed out that Hungary would not accept loans under the EU Recovery Fund, and said that this shows that Orban prefers funds without strings attached.
However, others believe that some criticisms reflect double standards.
“Given that Germany, France, and the United Kingdom all have closer economic ties with Beijing, it is difficult to justify the judgment of Hungary’s relationship with China,” said Gergely Salat of the government-funded Institute of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Data provided by Mathura’s Central and Eastern Europe and Asia Research Center also shows that Chinese investment in Hungary pales in comparison with funds from Germany and the United States.
However, unlike these countries, Hungary’s connection with the East is seen as a potential shift of the country’s pro-Western tendencies.
“The government has made it clear that it is more committed to loyalty to China and Russia than the EU and NATO alliances,” Gyori said.
Hungary and Huawei
China has good reasons to encourage this kind of division. As tensions between Beijing and these Western institutions escalated, Hungary often supports China’s interests.
Hungary ignored the US warning about Huawei’s security risks and allowed the company to play a leading role in its 5G network construction.
It is the only EU country to use Beijing’s national medicine vaccine, and NATO partners have expressed doubts about Hungary’s attitude towards Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea.
After Budapest blocked the EU’s measures against China to strengthen its control of Hong Kong, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas issued a severe condemnation to Orban on May 10.
“This is not the first time Hungary has broken away from unity on the China issue,” Maas told reporters. “I think everyone can figure out the cause by themselves.”
On the other hand, Chinese President Xi Jinping praised Orban.
“China highly appreciates Hungary’s adherence to a friendly policy… [and takes] Major projects serve as a guide,” he said.
Budapest hopes that more “major projects” will follow after the completion of Fudan University.
Kovacs said: “The opening of the campus is expected to further promote Chinese investment, especially the establishment of R&D centers,” and he predicted that Hungary will “become a regional knowledge center.”
But others say this is more likely to cause another devastating blow to the academic world, which Orban has long tried to seize control of—many suspects aimed to promote his nationalist ideology.
Michael Ignatieff is the president of Central European University, which was forced to withdraw from Budapest in 2018.
He called the arrival of Fudan “another blow to academic freedom”, implying that the university will not offer courses that criticize the Chinese or Hungarian government.
However, Beijing does not seem to care much about local public opinion.
On May 10, Fudan University announced the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China.
But Mathura pointed out that Fudan is still one of the freest universities in China. The analyst also hinted that Hungary may be a victim of hypocrisy.
Thousands of Chinese students are already enrolled in universities in the United States and Europe, and vice versa. “Therefore, opposing the opening of Chinese universities in Hungary seems to be a double standard.”
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