German foreign minister criticises Hungary over China

Hungary and some aspects of its foreign policy were reflected on once again by a European politician.

It was not long ago that Daily News Hungary reported about the quite

harsh words of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding Hungarian foreign policy.

Two weeks ago, Blinken participated in an online conference where he talked to 8 media representatives from all around the world who all work in a country or in a region where the current situation of media and press freedom is somewhat alarming or under attack in any way. One of the journalists tuned in from the Hungarian news portal Telex. Apart from talking about the oppression of the media, the US politician also mentioned Hungary’s relationship with China, a strong force working against integration by undermining the democratic and sovereign will of Several Eastern and Central European countries. You can

read more about the conference and listen to the US Secretary of State’s answer to the Hungarian question here.

Blinken’s reaction could also stem from

Hungary’s decision to veto a joint European Union statement, in which member states have the intention to condemn China for a new security law introduced in Hong Kong.

“Hungary argued that the EU already has too many issues with China”, a senior EU diplomat told Reuters. As a consequence, the EU statement had been withdrawn from the EU’s approval process.

As telex.hu writes,

Hungary once again vetoed the European Union’s aim to jointly criticise an electoral reform introduced in Hong Kong that would majorly quash the city’s democracy movement.

Heiko Maas, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, criticised Hungary very harshly for its decision.
“It is absolutely unacceptable”, he said. The social-democratic German politician also mentioned that this was not the first occasion that Hungary broke the unity of the EU in an issue related to China. He posed a rhetorical question about what the reason for such action might be, but he also went on to answer by saying that the relationship between Hungary and China is good.

The European Union had the intention to publicly condemn China for imposing an electoral reform on Hong Kong,

that even though it has its territorial independence, is under the authority of the huge Far Eastern country. The decision taken in March and its amendments unanimously passed by 167 members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress will slash the number of directly elected seats. It will ensure that a pro-Beijing committee will select the majority of the city’s lawmakers.

According to the EU, the reform will negatively affect the influence and power of the opposition in political decisions. Thus, the people will barely have any voice in electing representatives supposed to stand for their interests.

The reform accepted in March will expand Hong Kong’s legislature from 70 to 90 seats. This will result in an absolute minority of representatives elected by the people as opposed to those 55 seats that Beijing will directly give out. Moreover, those 35 parliamentary representatives elected by the people will also be chosen by a committee having links to Beijing.

Source: telex.hu