Budapest:
The liberal opposition mayor of Budapest announced on Wednesday he would rename streets in the Hungarian capital close to a planned campus of a Chinese university to commemorate alleged human rights abuses by Beijing.
One street will be named following the Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, labelled a hazardous separatist by Beijing. Another will be known as “Uyghur Martyrs’ Road” following the primarily Muslim ethnic group that Washington and other capitals say has been victim of a Chinese genocide, and a third will be known as “Free Hong Kong Road”. A fourth street will be renamed following a Chinese Catholic bishop who was jailed.
China denies repressing human rights.
“A few Hungarian politicians are trying to hype up China-related issues in order to grab attention and obstruct China-Hungary cooperation. This behaviour is contemptible,” stated Wang Wenbin, China’s foreign ministry spokesman.
The renamed streets will converge at an location exactly where China’s Fudan University is preparing to open a campus supplying masters programmes in liberal arts, medicine, small business and engineering for 6,000 students with 500 faculty.
“This Fudan project would put in doubt many of the values that Hungary committed itself to 30 years ago” at the fall of Communism, stated Mayor Gergely Karacsony, a liberal opposition figure who plans to run next year to unseat Viktor Orban, Hungary’s ideal-wing prime minister.
Orban’s liberal opponents accuse him of cosying up to China, Russia and other illiberal governments, although angering European allies by curbing the independence of the judiciary and media.
Central European University, Hungary’s major private university, relocated most operations to neighbouring Austria in 2019 following Orban’s government enacted legal modifications that jeopardised its status and launched a public hate campaign against its founder, businessman George Soros.
Karacsony told reporters the Chinese campus would expense Hungarian taxpayers almost $2 billion and went against an earlier deal with the government to create dormitories and facilities for Hungarian students in the district.
The government has defended the project: “The presence of Fudan University means that it will be possible to learn from the best in the world,” Tama Schanda, deputy minister for innovation and technologies stated last week.
According to an opinion poll by liberal assume-tank Republikon Institute published on Tuesday, 66% of Hungarians oppose and 27% help the notion of the campus.
“Fudan has brought the topic of relations with China to the forefront of politics,” stated Tamas Matura, a lecturer at Corvinus University and specialist on China.
Orban has faced criticism more than a deal to reconstruct the Budapest-Belgrade railway with a $2.1 billion Chinese loan, and for his quick-track approval of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine which nevertheless has not been authorized in the European Union. His government says the Chinese doses have helped accelerate the vaccine programme, and the road funding will boost Hungary’s transport hyperlinks.
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