Hungary Donates Budapest Land To Planned Chinese University

Hungary’s parliament approved a government proposal on Tuesday to donate state-owned land to a planned Chinese university in Budapest, despite opposition criticism and a recent protest that accused the government of cosying up to Beijing.

Opponents of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban are concerned that the planned $2 billion campus could undermine the quality of higher education and help Beijing increase its influence in Hungary and the European Union.

Orban’s government argues that the school could help attract new research and development centres and new investments to Hungary, a central European country of 10 million people, which relies heavily on foreign investment to drive economic growth.

Lawmakers of Orban’s ruling Fidesz voted overwhelmingly to donate four plots on the banks of the Danube River to a foundation in charge of the planned campus of Shanghai-based Fudan University, displacing a planned local student housing area.

The law says the government must present the final plans of the project, including its costs, to parliament by the end of 2022, after the next election in April.

Orban said last week that the issue would be then put to a referendum.

However, Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony, who is vying to become Orban’s opposition challenger, next year, is seeking a referendum on the campus before the election.