Former president Donald Trump wants voters to believe that he would be tough on Communist China if returned to the Oval Office. But is that really the case?
Yes, as president, Trump took bold and important actions to address China’s threat. He bolstered the U.S. military’s capability and readiness, cracked down on Chinese espionage, and confronted Chinese trade malpractice. Just as former President Harry Truman put the U.S. on a necessary Cold War footing against the Soviet Union, Trump helped establish a new bipartisan consensus on addressing China’s threats. Beijing remains visibly flustered as it struggles to understand how the golden days of Barack Obama’s appeasement so quickly became a distant memory.
Unfortunately, the former president doesn’t seem terribly inclined to remain tough on China if reelected in November.
After all, what other conclusion are we supposed to take from Trump’s continued feting of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s most loyal European servant, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban? Trump will again host Orban at his Mar-a-Lago residence Thursday. He might as well have invited Xi. After all, while the former president might think Orban is his loyal friend, the Hungarian leader’s affections are manifestly reserved for another.
Xi has no better friend than Orban. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin has his disagreements with Xi on certain territorial, trade, and espionage concerns. Not so Orban. In return for Chinese investments, the Hungarian leader has given China full access to infect Hungary’s telecommunications network with its espionage tools. And alongside his foreign minister Peter Szijjarto, Orban has blocked EU efforts to better counter Chinese trade coercion, military threats in the Pacific, intellectual property theft, and trade dumping. As Szijjarto put it, “We don’t see China as a risk, but as a country with which cooperation offers us immense opportunities.”
Sadly, Trump appears to believe Orban might be on to something with his pro-China policies. Hosting Orban at Mar-a-Lago in March, Trump said there’s “nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orban. He’s fantastic.” Trump has also thrown his support behind Orban’s performance act in pursuit of a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia. Hardly an impartial broker, Orban is far more supportive of Russia than Ukraine. Sadly for Orban, Putin doesn’t appear to hold his Hungarian interlocutor in terribly high regard. As Orban traveled to Moscow to discuss peace, Putin lobbed a missile into a Ukrainian children’s cancer hospital.
Still, China is the key concern here. Orban is now using his six-month Council of the European Union presidency to prevent tougher EU action against China, including that favored Trump concern of trade dumping. Orban also openly rejects Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty. Disguising himself as a nationalist strongman, Orban is actually Xi’s human carpet.
Some conservatives are unwilling to admit this. The Heritage Foundation, which has done some excellent work on China’s threat, is, for some reason, also devoted to Xi’s agent extraordinaire. Heritage is again hosting Orban’s representatives on Thursday. And the think tank seems to think Orban’s China policy is positive. As Heritage president Kevin Roberts has put it, “Heritage is proud of our policy work on foreign policy and national security. We are especially proud of our relationship with Prime Minister Orbán, whose leadership in Hungary on immigration, family policy, and the importance of the nation-state is a model for conservative governance.”
Orban’s family and immigration policies notwithstanding, the idea that he is a model for nation-state governance and U.S.-interest cooperation is laughable. He has prostituted Hungary’s sovereignty to Beijing.
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If Trump wants a nationalist conservative ally in Hungary, he’d be far better off looking to Orban’s former ally turned rising challenger, Peter Magyar. Unlike Orban, Maygar cares more about his country than his wallet and Xi’s affection.
Unless, that is, Trump truly does believe there’s “nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orban.”