Szijjártó is worried about China, says EU is ‘anti-China’
Hungary’s government wants to avoid the European Union becoming an “anti-China bloc”, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Stockholm on Friday, urging strategic cooperation instead of systemic competition.
“We don’t agree at all with the way certain European countries want to define China as a kind of systemic rival,” Szijjártó said during a break in an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers, according to a ministry statement.
Though there are both external and internal efforts to turn the EU into “a kind of anti-China bloc”, Hungary definitely wants to avoid this, he said.
“We believe that the European Union should strive for strategic cooperation with China,” he added.
Highlighting the strong economic ties between the EU and China, Szijjártó pointed out that bilateral trade turnover reached 860 billion euros last year, with Germany, France and Italy accounting for 46 percent of it.
“It’s not the central European countries that are China’s biggest trading partners, but rather the biggest western European countries,” the minister said.
He emphasised that China’s GDP now exceeded that of the EU. Whereas in 2010 China accounted for just 9 percent of global GDP compared with the EU’s 22 percent, the situation today is reversed, with China accounting for 18 percent of global GDP and the EU 17 percent, he said.
Szijjártó said it would be pointless for western European countries to want to sever the economic links between China and Europe, noting the “clear division of labour between East and West” that has emerged in the auto industry.
Western companies produce the electric vehicles and Eastern companies make the batteries for them, Szijjártó said, stressing that “neither works without the other.”
“We recommend that politics not interfere with this,” Szijjártó said. “Let’s let this division of labour created on a rational, reasonable economic basis work so that the European economic area and China can both adequately profit from it.”
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3 Comments
Foreign Minister – Peter Szijjarto – the “Heinrich Himmler” look alike – of the Hungarian Government, his comments, are a PROTECTION of Hungary’s deepening – there NEED of relationship with China.
Comment could be expressed as a back-side coverage.///
Szijjarto – seeds sown over years, and when he speaks – people have become that he is muchly of “Fork Tongue.”
The “love child” of the DESTRUCTOR of Hungary – Victor Orban, the Foreign Minister, what time he has left in that position other than to say he will sooner than later be “shifted” to another Fidesz position, a delight to his wife and young children, that reduces strains on a marriage.
Hungary is thought – growing in opinion, that it is a pivotal country and its Capital – Budapest, on what is being referred to as the New Silk Road – the meeting of the West with the East.
China have – continue to INVEST heavily into Hungary – knowing its a LONG term cheap investment, and at this point in time Orban & his Government, have VERY VERY cheap and inviting for SALE “price tags” on large slices of Hungary’s infra-structure.
China’s “hidden” supposed role it plays as the Financial Lender in that role – that is WIDLY known to Hungary – will massively GROW, as Orban – destroys Hungary’s membership of the European Union.
Forked Tongue Agenda – continual acceleration coming out of the Orban Government and Ministers, no worse than the – for the short time being Foreign Minister – Peter Szijjarto which largely is through the desperation acts we are witnessing in the survival of Hungary – the VILE place Victor Orban have taken us as a country.
The E.U. is not anti-China, but it SHOULD be. China is no ally, and Hungary would be foolish to hitch our wagon to that red star. At the end of the day, nobody is an ally. Cooperate, or try to, with everyone, but also 1) aim for self-sufficiency, and 2) diversify the economy, supply chains, trade partners, etc. so that when one of them turns on us we have plenty of other options. Have we truly learned NOTHING from the experience with Russia and Turkey!?!
Nice to see comments including from Mr. Steiner somewhat in agreement but I would remind bloggers that frequent use of large caps is quite distracting (at least for me) and actually can detract from the intended message. The populist Orban government is guilty of constantly making absolutist statements to stir up Hungarians and create a sense of grievance. Everyone is going to do business with China to some extent because of China’s sheer size and source of cheap labour. It presently is the manufacturing Mecca of cheap consumer products but note that some companies are shifting production elsewhere in Asia such as to Vietnam. Where the line has to be drawn is at creating any kind of strategic dependency on China that the Chinese government can exploit. One example in the West is the banning of Huawei’s 5G telecommunication technology by a large number of countries. Huawei’s 5G equipment not only can make the most vulnerable points of a country’s economy dependent on China but the equipment itself can possibly controlled for surveillance and/or sabotage by the Chinese government.