“In May, when the fragrance of flowers and grass on the Great Hungarian Plain fills the air, I will pay a state visit to Hungary at the invitation of President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban.” This was Chinese leader Xi Jinping waxing lyrical in an official statement about his landmark trip to Budapest on May 9, part of a tour that also included France and Serbia.

As the rest of the European Union was marking “Europe Day”, honouring the 1950 Schuman Declaration kick-starting the European integration project, Orban praised Xi’s China as “one of the pillars of the new world order”.

Xi’s visit to Hungary saw the announcement of a two-billion-euro ($2.1bn) railway project, adding to a growing number of large industrial projects funded by China. In December, top Chinese carmarker, BYD, announced it will build a factory for the production of electrical vehicles (EVs), while CATL, another Chinese firm, has undertaken a 7.3-billion-euro ($7.86bn) project for a battery plant.

China is the biggest foreign investor in Hungary, having poured some 16 billion euros ($17bn) into various projects.

It was the Chinese leader’s second trip to the country that many perceive as China’s Trojan horse within the EU. Orban did little to dispel such views. He basked in the glory of the special relationship with Beijing.

While the Hungarian government cosies up to Beijing, Europeans, by and large, perceive China as........

© Al Jazeera