China defends Hungary university plan following protest

China is defending a plan to build a university in Hungary, saying critics who protested against it in Budapest shouldn't politicize and stigmatize normal exchanges between the two countries

BEIJING -- China on Monday defended a plan to build a university in Hungary, saying critics who protested against it in Budapest over the weekend shouldn't politicize and stigmatize normal exchanges between the two countries. Several thousand people rallied in Hungary’s capital on Saturday against an agreement with Shanghai-based Fudan University to open a branch in the city, citing the cost and links with China’s authoritarian ruling Communist Party. The plan, backed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, calls for the Budapest campus to be completed by 2024. It would enroll international students and be the school’s only foreign outpost, as well as the first Chinese university campus in the 27-nation European Union. The plan is an important platform for people-to-people exchanges and is “in line with the current trend of the times and the interests of all parties," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing.