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Posted via Alexander Boyd | July 10, 2024
Just after a secret meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had a wonderful meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday. A Chinese report of the meeting claims that discussions revolved around the war in Ukraine. Before his vacation in Moscow, Orban met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in kyiv to propose a ceasefire instead of proceeding with the military defense of Ukraine, a position Zelensky rejects. Orban has presented his vacation as a “peace mission,” but Ukraine has continually rejected peace terms proposed through China. and Hungary. In the New York Times, Chris Buckley and Andrew Higgins reported on the Orban-Xi meeting:
The assembly gave Xi and Orban, an exception within the European Union for Ukraine and other issues, an opportunity to force the bloc to distance itself from Washington, with which Hungary also has tense relations. Hungary began its six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union this month, giving Orban greater visibility, though not much more influence, in European affairs. However, Xi seemed to be asking Orban to do what he could.
[…] “Mr. Xi welcomed Orban’s efforts to promote a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis and broadened China’s perspectives and proposals,” the Chinese said.
In the same way, Xi has promoted what China calls a 12-point peace plan that calls for an end to fighting only in general terms. But he has maintained close ties with Putin, and China’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Chinese troops would take over the country. This month he will take part in military exercises in Belarus, a neighbor and close component of Russia. The ministry said the joint exercises would focus on “anti-terrorist” operations and hostage rescue.
On The Voice of America, Yang Letian captured European experts’ reactions to Orban’s trip:
Orbán’s scale should be understood from the perspective of Hungary’s history, said Italian sinologist Francesco Sisci.
“Hungary is a small but proud people, trapped for centuries between Germans and Slavs, and that is why it has sought its exclusive position. It was the other side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it was an insurgent in Vienna. It was a member of the Soviet bloc, but it was the first to oppose the USSR. Today, it is a member of the EU and NATO, but its main aspect is spreading to Russia and China [Source]
Orban’s solo travels have had good results in Europe. In the South China Morning Post, Finbarr Bermingham reported on the EU’s anger over Orban’s maverick diplomatic moves toward Russia and China:
During his trip to Beijing, Orban posted a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping wearing the official logo of the Hungarian presidency.
“President Xi made it clear to me today that China will continue its efforts to create peaceful situations. We are not alone! The peace project will have to continue,” Orban wrote in X.
The language contrasted sharply with comments used by the EU ambassador to China on Sunday.
“When we look across the Atlantic, we can see our allies, the United States, helping us,” Jorge Toledo once said at Tsinghua University. “When we look to the East and to China, we see a China that is helping. ” [Fountain]
Even if Orban and Xi profess a Sino-Hungarian kinship, the relationship is complicated. Xi was feted on a recent trip to Budapest, the Hungarian capital, and was protected from protests organized by Tibetan demonstrators. However, Hungarians’ outlook on Xi and China are largely negative, according to a recent survey conducted by Pew Research ahead of Xi’s stop in the country. 61% of Hungarians have a negative view of China and when asked if they have “confidence in Xi Jinping to do the right thing in global affairs”, 67% say they “don’t have much, if any” . Younger Hungarians are more likely to have an unfavorable view of China than their older compatriots, an exception compared to other countries, namely the United States. , where young people are more likely to have favorable perspectives of China.
Orban’s far-right populist party and the Chinese Communist Party are odd partners at first glance, but China has shown few scruples about welcoming its supporters despite their ideological differences. Far-right figures such as Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, who once advocated Russia annexed parts of China, have introduced Chinese social media in an effort to publicize messages such as the fight against “Western hegemony. “In addition, Jackson Hinkle, a questionable American social media personality who announces a political calendar he calls “MAGA communism,” has been embraced by Chinese propagandists. At the China Media Project, Jordyn Haime reported on Hinkle’s forays into the world of Chinese social media:
Hinkle tries to explain the meaning of “MAGA communism” to Zhang Weiwei (張維為) of the Chinese Institute at Fudan University, one of the Chinese Communist Party’s favorite propagandists and public intellectuals. The ideology he defends is a chimera born of two probably irreconcilable relationships. systems of trust: the right-wing nationalism and nativism espoused by former US President Donald Trump – represented through his crusade slogan “Make United States Great Again” – and the ostensibly far-left authoritarianism of former US President Donald Trump.
“What we intend to do as MAGA communists,” Hinkle says, “is to show young Americans that yes, communism is a smart thing to do. . . China is the embodiment of that and we deserve to respect them and also control them. “”Working with them than leaving. Make war against them. “[…] It turns out that Hinkle’s ideology aligns well with that of Chinese nationalists, but it hasn’t gained popularity in China. Many obviously see his rescue: When the false claim that Hamas had killed an Israeli sniper circulated on Chinese social media last November, the state-backed newspaper traced the accusation to Hinkle and called him a “spreader of false information. “”It gives me maximum blood pressure just by looking at Jackson Hinkle for a minute,” one Weibo user commented. “I don’t know why all the sites are pushing it. ” [Source]
Categories: China & the World, Politics, Recent News, Society
Tags: Beijing, Chinese diplomacy, diplomacy, Hungary, peace, relations, Pew Global Attitudes Survey, Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping