Hungary and Serbia’s autocratic leaders to roll out red carpet for China’s Xi during Europe tour

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Chinese leader Xi Jinping will spend most of his five-day tour in Europe this week in two small countries in the continent’s eastern half, a region that Beijing has used as a foothold for its expanding economic ambitions in Europe. As mainstream European leaders have pursued more protectionist policies to limit Beijing and Moscow’s reach on the continent, the governments of nationalist conservative leaders Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Aleksandar Vučić of Serbia have courted economic ties with China, inviting major investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, energy and technology. Tamás Matura, a China expert and associate professor at Corvinus University in Budapest, said Hungary’s hosting of major Chinese investments and production sites — and its agnosticism on doing business with countries with spotty democratic and human rights records — has opened a crucial door to China within the EU. Hungarian state television on Monday appeared to confirm earlier reports that Xi and Orbán would travel to the southern city of Pécs to announce another EV manufacturing investment there involving China’s Great Wall Motor. But economic analyst Mijat Lakićević said he didn’t expect any major new investment deals, because “everything that Serbia does with China has already been agreed.” Hungary, too, has created a favorable investment environment for China, providing generous tax breaks, subsidies and infrastructural assistance to Chinese companies, as well as helping them navigate Hungarian bureaucracy.