Index – Homeland – The Chinese president has arrived in Hungary

According to the M1 Híradó report, Hszi Chin-ping will be received by Viktor Orbán in Budapest. The Chinese president has not visited Hungary for fifteen years.

The official program starts on Thursday at the Buda Castle, at the Lion’s Fountain, and then goes to the Sándor Palace, where he will meet the President of the Republic Tamás Sulyok. In the afternoon, he will visit the Carmelite monastery, where negotiations and solemn signing ceremonies will take place.

According to the news station, Xi Jinping has met Viktor Orbán seven times so far. The current meeting is special because the wife of the Chinese president is also coming to Hungary, and they know that there will be a lunch on Thursday, in which Viktor Orbán’s wife will also participate.

Viktor Orbán: We are ready

“Hungarian-Chinese summit. We are ready!” Viktor Orbán wrote on his social media page before the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Prime Minister also shared a video, in which it can be seen that the Buda Castle and the Carmelite Monastery were prepared for the Hungarian-Chinese summit.

As you know, between May 8 and May 10, after Paris and Belgrade, Budapest will be the guest of Chinese President Xi Jinping. On his program in Budapest until May 10, he will hold talks with the Hungarian Prime Minister and the President of the Republic on bilateral political, economic and international issues. The purpose of the visit is to further strengthen the intergovernmental and economic-commercial relations between Hungary and China, as well as to expand cooperation to new areas.

Due to the arrival of the Chinese president, until May 10 Budapest I., IX., XI., XV., XIX., XX. and XXIII. expected temporary traffic restrictions in the district.

Beijing has more than just economic goals

Eric Hendriks, a Dutch sociologist, China expert, guest researcher at the Danube Institute, called the European tour of Chinese President Xi Jinping of enormous importance to the Index. He reminded that this is the first visit of the head of state of the Far Eastern superpower to Europe in the last five years, with the exception of last year’s visit to Moscow. Regarding Hungarian-Chinese relations, he said: Beijing has more than just economic goals.

In the government circles of both countries, the prevailing view is that global geopolitics has reached a serious turning point. The West is declining, mainly because of progressive liberalism, while China will continue to grow stronger. Xi Jinping speaks of the unfolding of “great changes not seen in a century” that will usher in a “new era”

– said Eric Hendriks.

He believes that such a change is hard to imagine for the progressive liberals of the West, who see their values ​​as universal and label most of the political structures that differ from them as »authoritarian«.

At the same time, according to the expert, ironically, the progressive liberals are lagging behind precisely because they are still trying to override the global diversity of civilizations and political traditions with their favorite “universal political model”, while failing to see that their states no longer have the material power base to do so.

Deep friendship

According to his opinion article published in Magyar Nemzet, Xi Jinping had this to say about the Hungarians:

Today, Hungary is our important trading partner and the number one target country for Chinese investments in the Central and Eastern European region. The cooperation between the two countries is fruitful and full of vitality.

He recalled that in the past fifteen years, he had met Hungarian leaders visiting China on several occasions, and they formed a deep friendship. “I am really looking forward to returning to your country and sharing our thoughts with my Hungarian friends about our friendship and cooperation, and planning the development of modern Chinese-Hungarian relations,” he said in the opinion piece.

In Talk Talk, we talked with Levente Horváth, the director of the Eurássia Center, about how the village party secretary came to head the country that has now become a great power, what the purpose of the visit is, and why Hungary is important to China.

According to Levente Horváth, Xi Jinping went through the classic Chinese cadre career, as he went from village party secretary to city and then provincial leader, and was also party secretary in Shanghai. Later, he was included in the most important leadership body of the Chinese Communist Party, and then in the innermost circle, the Political Committee, which decides on the person of the next general secretary and head of state.

(Cover photo: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is received by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on October 17, 2023. Photo: Prime Minister’s Press Office / Zoltán Fischer / MTI)