The top US envoy to Budapest warned Hungary to be vigilant about attracting Chinese investments, highlighting a potential source of tension in the otherwise warm ties between Prime Minister Viktor Orban and President Donald Trump.
“President Trump is clear,” Charge d’Affaires Robert Palladino told a conference in Budapest on Tuesday. “China poses a strategic challenge to the United States and our allies, challenges that require vigilance, transparency and unity.”
Hungary has attracted 44 per cent of China’s European investments in recent years, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said last week, as Orban has lured battery and electric car producers. That decision increasingly looks out of sync with US policy as Trump targets China with massive tariffs.
Among the biggest new entrants have been Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. and global electric vehicle giant powerhouse BYD Co. Hungary also agreed to deepen ties with Huawei Technologies Co. to develop a joint cloud services platform with 4iG Nyrt., a defence and telecoms firm which Orban is grooming into a national champion.
The hardline US policy against China threatens to overshadow potential political gains Orban had been hoping for from Trump’s return to the White House, following years of criticism from the previous administration of Joe Biden over the erosion of democracy.
