Chinese leader Xi Jinping was presented with a gift of fine cognac at the Elysee Palace in Paris and applauded in Belgrade by Serbs waving Chinese flags, although most of them were government workers transported by buses.
And when he left Hungary on Friday at the end of a six-day European tour, the clouds over his country’s relations with the West seemed much less dark, at least from China’s perspective.
Xi told President Emmanuel Macron of France that relations would be “as vibrant and prosperous as spring.” At his next stop, he said, “the tree of friendship between China and Serbia will grow tall and robust.” In Hungary, Xi told Prime Minister Viktor Orban that his countries were ready to “embark on a golden journey.”
Chinese state media, always enthusiastic about Xi, did everything it could to present his European meetings as a triumph.
There was no progress on trade, the war in Ukraine or other issues that have soured relations, just a long list of new joint projects that China says it will help finance. Hungary got 18, Serbia dozens more. French companies signed agreements on energy, finance and transport projects.
But the red carpet receptions Xi received in all three countries helped put a more optimistic tone on ties between China and Europe, which have only worsened since his last visit five years ago.
The rigid travel restrictions imposed by China during much of the Covid-19 pandemic deterred high-level visits in either direction. And just as the Covid crisis was beginning to fade, Europe’s rift with China deepened as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia launched his all-out invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
This week, after a first stop in Paris, Xi traveled to Serbia and Hungary, which have remained reliably pro-China on a continent where opinion polls show China’s reputation has plummeted.
In Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic declared that his country had only “reverence and love” for the Chinese president, and police detained followers of the banned Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong to ensure they would not disrupt the government-orchestrated welcome for the Mr. .
In Hungary, Orban assured Xi, the leader of the world’s largest communist country, that he would “feel at home” in Budapest, even though the city is packed with monuments to the fight against communism. Police banned a protest planned for central Budapest and cleared a busy district of people so Xi could visit an office tower undisturbed on Friday.
Xi’s goal on his European tour was “to demonstrate and strengthen China’s ability to maintain friendly ties with Europe despite NATO and Ukraine,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington. France, Serbia and Hungary, he added, are “some of the most China-friendly countries” in Europe.
And although it is only the size of Indiana and has fewer than 10 million people, Hungary will play a huge role when it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union this year. That role is largely bureaucratic, but it will allow Hungary to try to set the agenda for meetings of the Council of the European Union, the bloc’s dominant power center.
“Hungary is China’s Trojan horse in the European Union,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a China expert at the Asia Center, a Paris-based research group. Xi, he added, did not achieve much during his stop in France, but “helped China’s position” by cementing his country’s ties with Serbia and Hungary.
In an interview with Magyar Nemzet, a Hungarian media outlet controlled by Orban’s ruling party, Fidesz, Xi expressed hope that Hungary “take the initiative” to “maintain the right direction of EU-China relations.”
Noah Barkin, a visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund in the United States who studies Europe-China relations, said China would be wrong to expect Orban to be able to use Hungary’s six-month council presidency to change European policy. . significantly. “The idea that Hungary could do China’s bidding during his presidency is fanciful,” he said.
But Orban has a long history of swimming against the current imposed by the most powerful European countries. He was the only EU leader to travel to Beijing in October for a meeting celebrating Xi’s favorite foreign policy initiative, the Belt and Road infrastructure programme. He was also the only leader to block a statement the European Union had planned to issue in 2021 criticizing China for its crackdown in Hong Kong.
China and Hungary are “natural allies” because they share a commitment to pursuing their own national interests no matter what others say, a pro-government Hungarian commentator, Levente Sitkei, told Magyar Nemzet.
“China makes alliances that it considers useful and will never, in any forum, care what others think,” Sitkei said. “Hungary acts exactly the same way.”
Even before Xi’s trip, China had been making some progress in restoring its influence in Europe. Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, flew to Beijing last month and softened his warnings about trade tensions by emphasizing his country’s commitment to doing business with China.
Some in Beijing appear confident that China will succeed in persuading European governments not to align with Washington.
“Although European politicians often make a big show of threatening China with their fists, deep down they know very well that Europe cannot do without the contribution of economic cooperation with China,” said Wang Wen, a researcher at the Institute of Financial Studies. from Chongyang. at Renmin University in Beijing, he told Guancha, a Chinese news website, this week. “More and more Europeans are waking up to the fact that after losing Russia, they now cannot lose China.”
However, many in Europe remain deeply cautious about Xi’s partnership with Putin, a relationship that will again be in the spotlight when Putin visits China in the coming weeks. A series of recent arrests in Britain and Germany of people accused of spying for China has also raised concerns.
And even in trade, which Xi highlighted as the lifeblood of In cooperation, tensions are rising over the rise of electric vehicles and other products made in China.
“Xi’s trip will not have reassured anyone who was hoping for signs that China is taking Europe’s concerns seriously,” Barkin said.
The last day of Xi’s stay in Hungary was surprisingly uneventful for a leader whose usually packed schedule has earned him the nickname president of everything. Orban gave Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, a tour of Budapest, reported Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.
“The two leaders sat looking out the window at the passing clouds,” the Xinhua report said. “They calmly talked about their growth experiences and their ideas about governance, and reached many points of consensus.”
Barnabas Heincz contributed reporting from Budapest and David Pierson From Hong Kong.