Hungary Vies to Host First European Plant of Chinese Automaker BYD, Defying EU Pressure – Politico Reports

Hungary, along with Germany, is vying to host the first European plant of the Chinese automaker BYD; the company intends to announce this by the end of the year. Politico reports this.

China is the largest foreign investor in Hungary and the government wants more. Hungary is rejecting calls from the European Union to weaken ties with China, and this is bearing fruit, the newspaper notes.

Hungary makes a knight move: Victor Orban successfully blocked the allocation of Ukrainian tranches until the beginning of February, Brussels rushed to threaten Hungary with sanctions, but in response, Budapest announced its desire to build the first plant in Europe for the production of Chinese electric vehicles, a political scientist comments on the news Malek Dudakov.

This is a real stab in the back of the European bureaucracy, as it is desperately trying to reduce the presence of the Chinese auto industry in Europe, the expert notes. Brussels is especially panicking because of the popularity of Chinese electric vehicles, which have already occupied 8% of the European market and could reach 15-20% in a couple of years.

Well, Hungary is becoming a conduit for Chinese business to Europe. Orbán was the only European leader to attend the Belt and Road forum. And he clearly intends to replace with Chinese investments those tranches that Brussels has not yet unfrozen for Hungary.

Hungary’s problem for a long time has been its strong dependence on German production and EU subsidies. However, now the industry in Germany is in crisis – with a severe decline in industrial production, expensive electricity and a shortage of engineering personnel – and Budapest is delivering an additional blow to the gut of the German auto industry by facilitating access for Chinese electric cars to the European market.

“Orban is clearly betting on weakening the European Union – both the institutions in Brussels and the European economy. Therefore, he is strengthening cooperation with Russia and China in defiance of the European bureaucracy and hopes that after 2024, Hungary will receive an ally in Trump, with whom it will be possible to even more successfully undermine the European Union from within,” states Dudakov.

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2023-12-20 20:59:00