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HomeWorld'Free Hong Kong Road' — Budapest renames streets to protest upcoming Chinese...

‘Free Hong Kong Road’ — Budapest renames streets to protest upcoming Chinese university campus

A European campus of Fudan University is set to come up in Budapest on Hungary PM Viktor Orbán's behest but city mayor Gergely Karacsony is opposed to project.

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New Delhi: The city government of Hungary’s capital Budapest has renamed streets to protest an upcoming private Chinese university campus. The “unwanted” project is reportedly being forced by the country’s prime minister Viktor Orbán.

Four streets in the city have been renamed as the Dalai Lama Road, Free Hong Kong Road, Uyghur Martyrs’ Road and Bishop Xie Shiguang Road, after a persecuted Chinese Catholic priest.

The streets intersect at the 5,00,000 square metre site for the upcoming campus of Shanghai-based Fudan University’s European campus, which is expected to be completed by 2024.

In a joint press conference along with the district mayor, Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony said, “We still hope the project won’t happen but if it does then it will have to put up with these names.”

“We don’t want the elite and private Fudan university here at the expense of Hungarian taxpayers,” Karacsony added.


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Tussle between Budapest mayor and Hungary PM

This is not the first time Karacsony has come out against the prime minister. He has previously called out Orbán for “Chinese influence-buying” in Hungary and had also asked the PM to not force projects on Budapest against its will.

According to an opinion poll published Tuesday by think tank Republikon Institute, 66 per cent Hungarians were opposed to the idea of the campus, while 27 per cent supported it.

In early May, Karacsony had announced that he would run in the primary election organised by an alliance of six parties to select an opponent against Orban for the general election in 2022.

The European campus for Fudan University is the latest in Orban’s foreign policy of “Eastern Opening”. His government defended the project as Deputy Minister for Innovation and Technology Tamas Schanda said, “The presence of Fudan University means that it will be possible to learn from the best in the world.”

Fudan University is a public research university based in Shanghai. It was first set up in 1905 as Fudan Public School, it was the first institution of higher education to be founded by a Chinese person. In 1917, it was renamed Fudan University.


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