Following widespread protests that took over the Hungarian capital, Budapest, over the weekend, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban may have reconsidered plans to build a Chinese Fudan University campus in the capital.
Demonstrators accused Orban and his conservative party, Fidesz, of betraying China. Orban’s opponents are worriedthat this € 1.5 billion project will undermine the quality of Hungarian higher education and help Beijing increase its influence in Hungary and the European Union.
Orban has built friendly relations with China, including supporting major joint business projects and blocking repeatedly this year statements by the European Union condemning human rights abuses in China.
An official close to Orban found that a campus against which there is great resistance, is not even in the planning stage. Once the plan is in place, which could take place in early 2023, it would be put to the vote in a referendum for the people of Budapest.
According to media reports, the Hungarian government was ready to pay for the construction of China’s Fudan University campus with a loan from China. This would be the first complex of its kind in Europe.
Documents received by Hungarian journalists show that the cost of the Chinese university project is around 1.5 billion euros. This is more than the annual budget of the entire Hungarian higher education system.
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