Hungary’s interior ministry claimed the deal would improve safety in tourist hotspots or during events that attract large numbers of spectators.
But the plan has drawn criticism from those concerned the agreement will be abused by communist China, which has a lengthy record of human rights abuses.
The patrols could be the first step to establishing secret police stations or used to intimidate the overseas Chinese community, they warned.
Does Hungary have a lot of Chinese expats?
If the number is more than 1, then according the Beijing, yes.
Also Hungary is close enough to everyone else that the occasional espionage agent can slip into the rest of Europe more easily
According to 2022 census data 18000 Chinese nationals live in Hungary, 15000 from that live in Budapest, they are the most popolous foreign community there.
I did a little digging, and I found out that a lot of Triads do business in Hungary. Perhaps this collaboration is due to that? Although it’s probably most likely just Orban trying to curry favor with Beijing.
As far as expats go, yes, Chinese are probably the largest group, their numbers are estimated around 18k now (used to maybe 50k in the 90s) but this is a lower estimate, since a lot of them are here without a citizenship. In 2013 a visa program was started when they could basically buy a citizenship if they buy government bonds for 250-300k€ (plus they pay a handling fee of 50k for a politician’s company).