Who is the country with the most iron-related relationship with China? You may think it is Pakistan , Russia or North Korea and other countries.
But if you add a limited range " EU ", then there is only one answer - Hungary.
Hungary not only has countless cooperation with China in economic and trade, but also has exercised the veto power of for three consecutive times on issues related to unfriendly China by the EU, has repeatedly spoken up and supported China. It is one of the few hard-core pro-China countries in Europe.
At the same time, Hungary is also Russia's most iron partner in the EU and is considered the "little Russia" of the EU. In this Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Hungary, as a member of NATO , took huge pressure to strife with the EU, and publicly refused to sanction Russia. It has a confrontation with the EU for the nth time.
itself is a genuine European country, but at the same time, it is incompatible with China and Russia, two countries that are often disagreeing with the EU. Hungary's pro-China and pro-Russia diplomatic line is really incomprehensible.
Could it be that as Hungarian Prime Minister Orban said, Hungary is a descendant of the Huns migrated from the East and has historically been neighbors to China, so Hungarian executors have such a very "European" pro-China route?
(I) The thorn in the EU - Hungary
"We were once neighbors in history, but now we are good friends."
In recent years, there has been such a saying in China that Hungarian ancestors came from Asia - China during the Han Dynasty . After being defeated by the Han Dynasty, they migrated to Europe, defeated the huge and settled on the land of Eastern Europe, gradually evolved into the modern Hungarian . Coincidentally, Hungarian officials agree with this statement very much.
Hungarian Prime Minister Orban once told the media this way that Hungary has a deep connection with the distant Asian nomads, and our ancestors are descendants of the Huns.
Many Hungarian people also said when talking about Hungary-China relations: "We were once neighbors in history, but now we are good friends."
From this perspective, it seems that it is not difficult to understand Hungary's almost unreserved attitude towards trust in China.
When other European countries still have doubts about China, Hungary first stood up and participated in the cooperation plan with China.
When European countries deeply trapped in the quagmire of the epidemic chose Pfizer , Moderna and waited for the Chinese vaccine , it was Hungarian President and the Prime Minister publicly vaccinated with Chinese vaccines, the first in the EU to officially recognize my country's vaccines.
Hungary is the only EU country to vote for support of our country on a lot of sensitive issues.
(Orban who received Chinese vaccine)
However, his attitude towards China is just one of the signs of Hungary's uniqueness in the EU.
In dealing with Russia, refugee issues, religion, immigration, media, and domestic politics, Hungary and the EU have had many fierce quarrels. They are famous "poor students" and "problem students" in the EU. They have been sanctioned by the EU for the so-called "democracy regression" issue with article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty , and are even threatened to be expelled from the EU for "alliance".
Let me say that Hungary is so close to China and Russia and offends the EU, of course it is not because of its ancestors' blood relationship and East Asia. In fact, from the perspective of blood genes, there is no strong enough argument to support the connection between Hungary and the Huns. It can only be said that some Hungarian cultural customs have the shadow of Asian grassland nomads.
In fact, Hungary repeatedly fights against the EU and becomes a thorn, which has other deep reasons.
(II) From model students to problem students How Hungary is gradually drifting away from the EU
Hungary was once a successful representative of the smooth transition from socialism to capitalism among Eastern European countries.
Since the 1990s, Hungary has used the traditional liberal values of Western Europe and the market economy as a benchmark to promote domestic political, economic and judicial reforms.
(A glance at Hungary)
Hungary not only established a basic multi-party parliamentary system, but also achieved great results in attracting foreign investment. As of 2008, foreign investment controlled more than 50% of the country's manufacturing industry and 60% of the energy industry, and was a "promised land" for large Western European multinational enterprises.
So in 2004, with a beautiful vision for the society of developed Western European countries, Hungary, which was successfully integrated with it, was admitted to the EU family without any surprise.
However, joining the EU did not bring about the leap in the imagined living standards, and not everyone can get the big cake of economic growth. In order to attract foreign capital and maintain the advantage of low wages, Hungary has taken measures to impose preferential taxes on foreign capital and heavy taxes on its own labor departments, which has caused quite a lot of small and medium-sized enterprises to share the profits of large multinational companies and become losers in globalization. They gradually became suspicious of neoliberalism.
The 2008 financial crisis directly brought this fragile economic structure to a bottom. Due to the reliance on foreign investment and the economic downturn of Germany, the major exporter, the Hungarian economy suffered a strong impact, and the real GDP growth rate plummeted from 0.9% in 2008 to -6.8% in the second year.
After the withdrawal of foreign capital, the currency depreciation and the capital chain were broken. fiscal tightening has brought about a sharp shrinkage of domestic consumption. The whole country was almost in a desperate situation of bankruptcy.
(Hungarian poor people who receive food on the street)
In addition to the economy, another problem that may make Hungary even more annoyed is also coming one after another - the refugee issue.
(Hungarian army is building barbed wire)
After the Arab Spring, the surging wave of refugees swept from Middle East to Asia Minor and Southeast Europe . Hungary, as the gates of Eastern Europe, has become an important transit place for refugees.
These "pagans" with different cultures brought their children to the borders of Hungary, Czech Republic , Poland and other countries, and yelled angrily for opening their doors, getting bread and security.
's attitude towards refugees is divided into two hostile camps within the EU. The "old Europe" represented by Germany and the Netherlands hopes to actively accept and resettle them in accordance with the so-called freedom and equality of humanitarian values, and intends to force Hungary, which has a relatively weak economy, to draw more refugee quotas.
However, the "New Europe" represented by Hungary and Poland rejected the EU's resettlement plan in one go.
Among them, Hungary spent huge amounts of money directly on the border to build barbed wire and isolation walls, and its leaders directly threatened to force the arrest of any illegal immigrants who poured into the country.
(Hungarian police expel refugees)
The refugee issue exposes the profound contradiction between values and national interests between Hungary and old Europe.
As the front line of the history of fighting against Islam expansion, Hungary has the title of "Shield of God". Many Hungarian civilians often think of the long humiliating history of being ruled by Ottoman Türkiye for more than 100 years.
Therefore, they are particularly wary of the high fertility rate of Middle East Islamic refugees, and are worried that these pagans will completely rewrite the Hungarian political ecology through population replacement and destroy the foundation of Christianity, the founding spirit.
As Orban said, European lifestyle is now in danger and we must keep Hungarian Hungary!
Furthermore, the EU power center and its members located in Brussels do not completely represent the interests of EU member states. These high-ranking institutions are often regarded as synonyms for bloated people. From here, some orders that go against Hungary's public opinion are often issued, interfering with Hungary's national sovereignty.
So since 2010, with Orban, who represents the populist force at the bottom of the country, winning a great victory in the election, Hungary began to implement a series of "de-EUJI" or "non-EUJI" policies.
politically amends the law, strengthens centralization, builds a strong government, and tightens control over the "pens";
strengthens border defense in terms of security, strictly guards against refugees, strengthens state intervention in the market economically, increases tax revenue in specific industries, and increases government revenue;
diplomatically changes one-sided policies, no longer puts eggs in a basket, and implements a strategy of opening up to the East, so getting close to China and Russia has become the basis for the Orban government.
(III) Two-way trip - China and Hungary are perfectly connected
The EU, which is already deeply involved in the European debt and refugee crisis, finds it difficult to give it too much help, so Hungary began to turn its attention to the east.
Especially after the financial crisis, there has been a trend of "upward east and downward west", and the sluggish performance of Western developed economies is in sharp contrast to the rise of emerging markets in the East.
Orban government has adopted a unique "opening east" strategy in the new era, hoping to increase exports to Eastern countries and attract their investments, and get rid of the recession brought about by the financial crisis.
Among them, China has become the most important country in the "opening eastward" strategy.
Although there are many differences in ideological between Hungary and China, both have close demands for win-win cooperation and economic development, and are unwilling to put ideology above real interests like Western Europe.
For Hungary, China's huge market with a population of more than one billion is an unstoppable temptation for its own enterprises. China has a good dual attractiveness of capital and technology in high-speed rail, communications, and new energy, which will help Hungary strengthen its transportation hub advantages, develop green energy, improve its previously unbalanced trade structure, etc.
For China, although Hungary has a population of less than 10 million, its land area is small.
But its geographical location is very important. It is an important portal connecting Western Europe and Southeast Europe, and a logistics center across the East and West.
After the reform and opening up of , a major continental channel for Chinese goods to enter Europe was to distribute from Hungary's capital Budapest to other European countries. To this day, Budapest has also built a special brand center for wholesale distribution of Chinese goods.
The common interests between China and Hungary quickly approached, and formally established a solid strategic partnership in 2017, and one agreement after another took root.
Take Hungary-Serbian Railway as an example. Originally, this railway needed to be renovated due to the aging of the line, but the EU, which has no time to take care of , has no spare time to invest in renovation, and has had to reject Hungary's investment request. In desperation, Hungary had to seek help from China.
(Sharing the Hungary Project)
With the strong support of the infrastructure maniac, this 342-kilometer railway has ushered in a new life. Some sections of the road have been completed and are expected to be officially opened to traffic in 2025.
At that time, China's goods will be quickly transported from Mediterranean through Serbia and Hungary to European countries, greatly improving the efficiency of freight in Southeast Europe and benefiting the people of Hungary and Serbia.
According to statistics, in 2020, China became Hungary's fourth largest trading partner in the world with its 5.02% share and is Hungary's largest trading partner outside the EU.
(PV power station invested by China)
If Hungary is closer to China and considers more economic investment, then energy and Christianity are the two most important reasons for its close relationship with Russia.
(IV) Ensure energy security and defend Christian civilization - Hungary and Russia have formed close partners
Hungary and Russia have had very unpleasant experiences in history. Russia's predecessors Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union successively suppressed the Hungarian Revolution in 1848 and 1956.
However, the geographical changes brought about by The collapse of the Soviet Union made Hungary and Russia come together because of the overlapping interests of each other.
is the first to bear the brunt of energy.
Hungary has a small territory, and its natural resources, including oil and natural gas, lacks capital and technology in new energy, so it is very sensitive to energy security.
especially expressed strong dissatisfaction with the green energy transformation and carbon emission trading advocated by the EU, believing that the latter has greatly increased energy prices and forced energy-scarred countries like Hungary to pay higher costs than before.
(Russia and Hungary talks)
So Russia, which has rich energy and low prices, naturally reached cooperation with Hungary in this regard.
When Russia fell into Western sanctions after the Crimean crisis in 2014, Hungary ignored the EU sanctions order and took the initiative to jump out and sign energy agreements with Russia, including bypassing Ukraine's Black Sea oil and gas pipelines, Pokash nuclear power plant and other projects.
By 2020, about 60% of Hungary's energy comes from Russia. Sanctions against Russia meant the complete collapse of Hungary's energy structure, and most people had to survive a cold "naked winter".
(V) Conclusion: EU doubts and no Brexit. Hungary and the EU are inseparable from each other. It is worth noting that Hungary is close to China and Russia and alienated from the EU does not mean that it is completely apart from the latter.
It is undeniable that the EU has brought a lot of constraints and constraints to Hungary, but at the same time, the EU is still indispensable for Hungary to maintain national economy and people's livelihood. At present, the EU is still Hungary's largest trading partner, and Hungary itself is one of the countries that benefit the most from the EU fund .
(European Parliament)
is not only to fight for its own national interests as much as possible within the EU framework, but also to retain the national spiritual pillar of Hungary, which has become the wishful thinking of the Orban government.
Therefore, we have seen that several times Hungary and some EU member states almost broke off diplomatic relations due to refugee issues, but often take the "step back and two steps" method to cleverly deal with the EU at the last moment, and big things have turned into small things.
In addition, although it is a major principle for the EU to adhere to EU pluralism values, after all, all member states are theoretically equal nation-states.
If Hungary is forced too quickly, it may cause the centrifugal force of the new and old Europe to become increasingly large, destroying the mutual trust that was finally established in the past. Therefore, as long as Hungary does not do too much, the EU will only be punished with three glasses of wine.
In short, the relationship between Hungary and the EU is still in a state of leaving room for nothing and being connected.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-