Matteo Garavoglia

Opinion | China won’t help EU relations by befriending unpopular European leaders

By cosying up to Hungary’s Orban and Serbia’s Vucic, two leaders with possibly the worst reputations in Europe, China risks tarnishing its image in return for superficial and short-term gains

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Chinese President Xi Jinping walks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban before their talks in the prime minister’s office, the former Carmelite Monastery, in Budapest on May 9. Photo: AFP

Matteo Garavoglia

Published: 5:30am, 19 May 2024

Chinese President Xi Jinping must be pleased with the results of his five-day trip to Europe. In his first visit to the continent since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, he spent time in France, Serbia and Hungary, securing important financial deals without expending any significant diplomatic capital.

But Xi’s European tour did not address the long-term challenges that hamper the Sino-European relationship. China is still at risk of a long-term strategic impasse with Europe.

In France, Xi wisely joined President Emmanuel Macron in calling for an “Olympic truce” for the Paris Games in the summer, amid wars in Ukraine and Gaza. In doing so, Xi came across as a statesman of peace while having to invest extremely little actual political capital in what many would see as a reasonable gesture.

In Serbia, Xi met his counterpart, President Aleksandar Vucic, a friendly leader who has opened the country’s economic doors wide to China through infrastructure projects such as the takeover of Smederevo steelworks, building of Pupin Bridge and development of Zijin Mining’s copper basin. Serbia’s economy is small but its welcome for the Chinese president was warm.

It was in Hungary, however, that Xi was truly celebrated. In Budapest, he and Prime Minister Viktor Orban hailed their countries’ blossoming economic relationship, which will see Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD open its first factory in Europe in southern Hungary’s Szeged, expected to produce 200,000 EVs a year. Work on the China-backed Budapest-Belgrade high-speed railway is also proceeding apace.

All these developments highlight the strength of an emerging and China-friendly Hungarian-Serbian axis in Europe.