“We sail under Western Pavilion, but the wind blows from the East in the world economy.” Shortly after the elections that brought him to power in 2010, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced the “opening to the east” of his country, to reduce its economic dependence with the West. Budapest’s merger with Beijing was born at the end of 2014, with the signing of a cooperation agreement as part of the new silk roads. This gigantic investment plan, which aimed to develop the influence of the Middle Empire around the world, was then an ideal point of fall in Europe.
At the heart of the Sino-Magyare alliance, the modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest rail line, by 2026, will accelerate the delivery in central Europe of goods arriving from the Greek port of Piraeus, itself under the pavilion Chinese. Beijing assumes 85 % of the project, estimated at nearly 2 billion euros. Hungary, for its part, has in debt over twenty years with the China import-export bank to finance the 150 kilometers of local portion.
“A bridge between the east and the west”
“It is with the arrival of Viktor Orban that Hungary began to consider China as an essential partner of its economic development”,, underlines Nathan Quentric, economist at Crédit Agricole. Since the end of the Cavid pandemic, Chinese investments in the country have exploded – the government has been talking about 16 billion euros in total. The exchanges are more than cordial between the two leaders, the European nationalist who did not hesitate to praise the Chinese model in his founding speech on “illiberal democracy”, in 2014, on the occasion of the annual Hungarian right festival. About ten years later, he was the only leader in the EU countries present at the Beijing summit of new silk roads. For its part, Xi Jinping still praised, last year, the close economic cooperation with Budapest during a historic visit to Hungary.
A “strategic partnership” that rhymes with political pragmatism. “The two countries seek a favorable position in an international environment rapidly evolving, deciphers Gergely Salat, sinologist and teacher at the Catholic University Pazmany in Budapest. China strives to identify stable and reliable partners in Europe, where its disposition to give more space to Hungary. ‘West.”
Its advantages have not escaped Beijing, which values its position at the heart of Europe, its corporate tax of only 9 % – the lowest in the EU -, and its state support provided to each project. China became the country’s first foreign investor in 2023, the year when 44 % of its direct investments focused in Hungary, more than France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Trade between the two states tripled between 2014 and 2023, from 3 billion euros to more than 9 billion. Last year, Hungary even borrowed 1 billion euros from three Chinese banks to relieve its finances weakened by debt.
If Budapest welcomes Chinese capital with open arms, it is also because the European Union froze 20 billion euros in funds due to the attacks by Viktor Orban in the rule of law. These projects “fall on” but the Asian tropism of the Prime Minister “has risks because the EU remains the most vital partner of the Hungarian economy”, warns Nathan Quentric. For the time being, the chief of Fidesz, who had been injecting the Sinopharm vaccine during the covid pandemic, does not cure: mid-January, the Xinzhi group announced the construction of a factory of automotive parts in The Hungarian Hatvan city, 60 kilometers from the capital. Next spring, a subsidiary of Cofco Packaging will start the production of aluminum cano in Mako, in the south-east of the country.
Land and air cooperation
Two Chinese locations are added to an already long list, mainly in the automotive sector. A way to bypass European surcharges aimed at electric cars produced in China. The giant CATL builds the largest European battery factory in Debrecen, the country’s second agglomeration, where Chinese firms Semcorp and Eve Power are also established. Szeged, the third Hungarian city, will host the first European site in Byd, the world’s n ° 1 of electric vehicles. To supply battery assemblers, the manufacturer of Cathodes Huayou Cobalt also refines his first European factory in ACS, near the Slovak border. If the negotiations lead, the Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors will open his at Bicserd, near Pecs. Since January, the J-Star Motion group has produced linear electric motors in Kaposvar, in the southwest of the country, in its largest European workshop.
The Chinese automobile is not the only one to swarm in this country at the seven borders. Hungary hosts the largest logistics site in Huawei outside China, in Biatorbagy, near Budapest. The electronics giant, banished by certain Western countries for suspicions of cyberspionage, teams the 5G network of the East-West Gate logistics platform in Fenyeslitke, not far from Ukraine. The installation welcomes trains from China and dreams of new silk roads in the western door, although it does not depend directly on the project.
For ten years, many Chinese companies have established one of their sites in Hungary.
© / Lucile Laurent / L’Express
In addition to this land cooperation, the two states share a “air silk route”. In 2021, Budapest airport inaugurated a terminal dedicated to the treatment of freight from China, in conjunction with Zhengzhou airport. Four months later, the Alibaba logistics subsidiary, Chinese mastodon of e-commerce, made the Hungarian capital its hub for central and eastern Europe. As for line planes, they shuttle between Budapest and seven Chinese metropolises including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
An overwhelming influence?
The specter of a trade war between the United States of Donald Trump-the Orban ally-and Beijing does not seem to discourage the Hungarian. However, these investments, which accompanied by waves of “guest workers”, be the remedy for the evils of national production, and in particular its low level of innovation?
“All these projects mean Chinese employees, Chinese construction and Chinese machines, which has no more economy, alerts Tamas Matura, assistant professor at Corvinus University. Poland, Czech Republic and Romania have turned from Beijing because of the disappointment aroused by cooperation 16 + 1 [NDLR : Europe centrale et orientale-Chine] And its proximity to Russia. The Chinese government only has two allies in Europe, Hungary and Serbia. “China specialist, economist Agnes Szunomar abounds:” This strategy risks strengthening foreign dependence, which is characteristic of Hungarian development. The influence of Chinese companies could become overwhelming, as was before it that of German societies. “In the event of an external shock, capital generally leaves as quickly as they have entered. A vulnerability of which Martial Viktor Orban does not want not hear talking.
.