The Buzz | Hungary: Plan to build Chinese university branch protested

Several thousand people rallied in Hungary’s capital Saturday against plans by Prime Minister Viktor Orban to host a Chinese university in Budapest.
A strategic agreement that Hungary signed with Shanghai-based Fudan University envisages opening a branch in the city’s 9th district. Plans call for the Budapest campus to be completed by 2024. It would enroll international students and represent the school’s only foreign outpost, as well as the first Chinese university campus in the 27-nation European Union.
The protesters marched from Heroes’ Square toward the Hungarian parliament building, defying a pandemic ban on gatherings of more than 500 people. The crowd carried banners reading ‘No Fudan,” flags and posters.
Budapest authorities have opposed the university branch idea. They argue the $1.9 billion project would place a huge burden on taxpayers and send the wrong political message because of the alleged human rights abuses in China.
Orban, a right-wing populist, has fostered closer ties with Russia and China as he faces European Union criticism for his authoritarian ways and staunch anti-immigration stand.