American conservatives love Hungary’s Orbán — but ignore his wooing of China

Excerpt

Hungary’s flowering relationship with China, on full display during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s triumphant two-day visit to Budapest, is a blazing three-alarm fire. Will America conservatives respond to the call?

For many on the American right, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s defense of traditional values against “woke” ideology absolves all other sins. We must not fall for Orbán’s games. Orbán’s devotion to deepening relations with China makes him an unreliable partner. He has lauded China, which labors tirelessly to end American global leadership, as “a pillar of the multipolar world.” With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Feted in style, Xi was met in Hungary with red carpets, media praise and protection from pesky protestors, courtesy of his host. China and Hungary signed at least 16 cooperation agreements, with a focus on energy and infrastructure, while also upgrading diplomatic ties to an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership for the new era.”

Daniel Kochis is a senior fellow in the Center on Europe and Eurasia at Hudson Institute. Ivana Stradner is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.