Why do CPAC, Heritage love China-friendly Orban?
What do the nationalist right and the Chinese Communist Party have in common? They both love Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Last week, the Conservative Political Action Conference continued its shameful embrace of Orban, holding its third annual meeting of the European right in Budapest. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts says he is “especially proud” of his group’s relationship with Orban, whom he calls “a model for conservative governance.”
Really? Put aside the fact that Orban is a Hungarian David Duke, and that he openly declared that, in his country, “we do not want to become peoples of mixed race”
— a comment that would have rightly ended the political career of an American politician.
Put aside the snowballing child sex-abuse scandal that has roiled Orban’s government. And put aside the fact that Orban has openly endorsed Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, who has massacred countless innocent civilians in his unlawful invasion of Ukraine, flying to Moscow to proudly shake Putin’s hand.
If that is not enough to make Orban radioactive to the American right, how about his embrace of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping?
If there is one thing that supposedly unites all branches of American conservatism, it is the recognition that China poses an existential threat to the U.S. and the free world. Well, Orban has turned Hungary into the Chinese Communist Party’s closest ally in Europe.
Just before joining CPAC’s gathering in Budapest, Orban hosted China’s minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, the government official responsible for counterintelligence, political repression and the political security of the Chinese Communist Party, and who signed agreements to deepen the two countries’ cooperation on public security issues. The new pacts permit Chinese police to patrol within the country, allowing them to more easily hunt down Chinese dissidents in Europe.
At a time when U.S. conservatives are pushing for economic decoupling from China, Orban has made Beijing his country’s largest trading partner outside the E.U. and one of its major investors. “We are proud that Hungary is now the No. 1 destination for Chinese business investment in Central Europe. We thank President Xi for this!” Orban enthused during a speech in Beijing in October.
Orban’s government has signed strategic cooperation agreements with major Chinese firms including the Bank of China and Huawei, which Hungary has invited to play a crucial role in developing its digitization and 5G infrastructure — a direct threat to NATO and U.S. information security. By contrast, President Donald Trump cut off Huawei’s access to U.S. components and technology, declaring in 2020: “We don’t want their equipment in the United States because they spy on us. And any country that uses it, we’re not going to do anything in terms of sharing intelligence.”
Not only is Orban turning his nation into an outpost for Chinese intelligence, he made Hungary the first European country to sign a Belt and Road cooperation agreement — a Chinese Communist Party initiative to buy economic and political influence through massive infrastructure investments with China. Orban has taken $7.6 billion from Beijing, more than any other country.
If Orban wants to embrace a brutal Communist dictator, that is his choice. But why would U.S. conservatives then embrace him? Even Trump has praised Orban and hosted him recently at Mar-a-Lago.
Orban’s blood-andsoil nationalism is inimical to U.S. conservatism, because what we are trying to conserve is not race or ethnicity but an idea: the idea of human freedom and the principles contained in our Declaration of Independence. Orban has embraced the enemies of those principles. By embracing Orban, the Heritage Foundation and CPAC are supporting the spread of Communist China’s malevolent influence in the West and undermining U.S. national security interests.