Hungary, a European country, is simply our "brother" hidden in Europe.
Over the years, Hungary has more than once silently helped China in international, especially within the European Union, and has also opened the door to welcome Chinese investments and Chinese people.
Such a country is rare in European politics, which is often noisy. Why is Hungary so close to China?
The main ethnicity of Hungary is the Mazars, whose language belongs to the non-Indo-European language family and is somewhat different from other European peoples, which has led to their cultural mentality as "foreigners" in Europe.
In fact, Hungarians rarely claim to be part of purely Western civilization, but it is easier to find resonance between Eastern and Western civilizations.
Historically, their ethnic origins and the origins of the East have been, moving from the Ural mountains to the Carpathian basin.
This cross-civilization background makes Hungarian society not exclusive of Eastern culture, and the perception of China is more neutral than other European countries.
The Chinese care about honesty and fairness, and the Hungarians also admire treaty and reality.
In this regard, the most direct manifestation is Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, who is now a rare doer and realist in European politics.
On the issue of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he is almost the only leader in the EU who publicly advocates ceasefire and talks. He even criticized Brussels' war policy more than once for giving priority to "war" rather than economic competitiveness.
In 2025, EU affairs minister Boko Haram also said directly that the EU had a serious deviation in its attitude towards Russia, spent too much energy on supporting the war, ignoring the welfare of the people.
Hungary’s direct expression appears to be obscure in the European Union, which seeks a collective calibre, but this is the long-standing style of Orbán – daring to say the truth that no one dares to say, and that is why Brussels often has nothing to do with him.
This very "axis" country, in fact, is not the real axis, but very pragmatic.
Hungary is aware of its limited national strength and the only thing it can do is to find a balance in the game of great powers.
Over the years, it has gradually developed a multi-directional diplomatic strategy that bothins relations with the United States and does not want to blame Russia, but also actively embraces China.
Within the European Union, many countries impose taxes on Chinese electric vehicles and prevent Chinese high-tech, while Hungary is openly opposed.
Speaking in Beijing, Foreign Minister Seattle said that 44% of China's investment in Europe flows to Hungary, and Chinese companies feel self-sufficient here because Hungary pursues an economic neutral strategy and never discriminates against any investor.
This is naturally true. Chinese companies have indeed obtained a solid landing environment in Hungary. Leading domestic new energy companies such as BYD, CATL, and Yiwei Lithium Energy have built factories there.
The Hungarian government is also quite strong in its policy of attracting foreign investment. In 2024, they revised the investment bill to provide tax incentives, rent discounts, subsidies, etc. to foreign companies. It attracted more than 10 billion euros of foreign investment throughout the year, of which China accounted for half.
This is not a vanity number, but a real creation of tens of thousands of new jobs.
For a country with less than ten million inhabitants, such investments can be steadily obtained, and it is a real boost to economic growth.
In the midst of the emptiness of industries within the EU and the flow of capital out of Europe, Hungary is a typical example of the "recession to make money."
Not only companies, Hungary's policies are becoming more and more friendly to ordinary people in China.
In 2024, they launched a new investor residency program that allows investors to gain residency for up to ten years by purchasing funds or donating to trusts.
This long-term visa has no immigration surveillance requirements and is quite flexible for many who want to have a status in Europe but do not want to reside for a long time.
And the more direct impact is that the Chinese become the main force of the new wave of Hungarian investment immigrants, because there are clear policies, low cost of living, good education and health care, and freedom to enter the Schengen area.
Simply put, Hungary is the few developed European countries that sincerely welcome Chinese arrivals.
In fact, the reason is real, Hungary itself has always emphasized the "open to the east" strategy, which in the EU is a more daring route than anyone else.
Hungary believes that the center of future world growth is in the East, especially in the Chinese market.
They did not speak out, but signed the Belt and Road Cooperation Agreement in 2015, the first European countries to join, and also actively promote the cooperation mechanism of Central and Eastern European countries.
During his presidency of the EU in 2024, Orban publicly stated that he hopes to shift EU foreign policy towards interest-oriented and no longer engage in the kind of "ideological superiority" diplomacy.
Many European countries speak out about democratic values, real projects are promoted in time and time, and Hungary is not the same, it needs both economy, cooperation and mutual benefit.
In the past, China companies investing in Europe, especially in the new energy vehicle industry, would be regarded as a threat by some countries.
The EU wants to raise taxes and investigate, this is no longer news.
But every time such a bill comes to the table, Hungary is almost always one of the few countries that opposes it.
The reason is simple, in their view, the immobilization of tariff barriers is "shooting at the other leg" and failing to solve the problem instead of worsening EU-EU economic and trade relations.
The automotive industry is Hungary’s pillar industry, and they know that once the industry chain is politicized, the first victim is themselves.
In recent years, many politicians in Europe talk about "value diplomacy" verbally, but they are all playing industrial cards in their hearts, while Hungary simply puts aside political slogans and directly talks about the results of cooperation.
Its ability to withstand pressure in the EU family and persist in promoting cooperation with China shows that it has truly seen the long-term interests.
Therefore, it is not too much to compare Hungary to China’s “brother-in-law,” and it can even be said that Hungary is the kind of friend China needs most – not loud, not loyal, but always willing to stand up and say an honest word at a critical moment.