中国大学建設に「ノー！」　１万人が抗議　ハンガリー

【ブダペストＡＦＰ＝時事】ハンガリーの首都ブダペストで５日、中国の名門大学、復旦大学のキャンパス建設計画に反対するデモ行進が行われ、ＡＦＰのカメラマンによると、約１万人が参加した。（写真はハンガリーの首都ブダペストで行われた、中国・復旦大学のキャンパス建設に反対するデモ）
　キャンパス建設計画は、オルバン・ビクトル政権が推進するもので、２０２４年までに完成予定となっている。
　ハンガリー政府と復旦大が結んだ合意によると、同大にとって欧州初となるキャンパスの延べ床面積は５０万平方メートルに及ぶ。
　だが、この一大プロジェクトは、欧州連合（ＥＵ）と距離を取り、中国やロシアに接近するオルバン政権の外交姿勢や対中債務の急増に対する不安をかき立てており、ブダペストの市長は、抗議のために建設予定地周辺の道路名を「自由な香港通り」などに変更したと発表した。
　調査報道サイト「ディレクト３６」に流出した内部文書によると、建設費はハンガリーの高等教育予算１年分を上回る推計１５億ユーロ（約２０００億円）で、中国はうち１３億ユーロ（約１７００億円）を融資する計画だ。
　デモ行進の参加者が手にしたプラカードには、「復旦大はいらない！ 東側ではなく西側！」と書かれたものや、中国に擦り寄っているとしてオルバン首相と与党フィデス・ハンガリー市民連盟を批判するものが見られた。
　デモに参加した大学生のソーニャ・ラディチさん（２１）はＡＦＰに対し、「オルバンとフィデスは反共を自称しているが、実際には共産主義者の仲間だ」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/06/08-14:05）

Thousands of Hungarians demonstrated in Budapest Saturday against a plan by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government to build a campus of a top Chinese university in the city.
Around 10,000 people, according to an AFP photographer, marched through the Hungarian capital to protest the proposed Fudan university campus which is planned for completion by 2024.
According to a deal signed between Hungary and the Shanghai-based university's president, the campus, its first in Europe, would be a 500,000 sq metre (5m sq ft) complex.
But the sprawling project has fed unease about Hungary's diplomatic tilt from west to east and its soaring indebtedness to China, as well as sparked a diplomatic spat between Beijing and Budapest's liberal mayor.
Leaked internal documents revealed that China is expected to give a ?1.3bn ($1.6bn) loan to cover most of the estimated ?1.5bn costs.
No Fudan! West, not East! read one placard at the protest, while another accused Orban and his ruling right-wing party Fidesz of cosying up to China.
Orban and Fidesz portray themselves as anti-communists but in reality the communists are their friends, Szonja Radics, a 21-year-old university student, told AFP at the protest, the first major demonstration in Hungary this year.
- Streets renamed -
With an opinion poll last week showing that a majority of Budapest residents oppose the plan the capital's liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony has urged Orban not to force unwanted projects on the city.
On Wednesday he announced the renaming of streets around the proposed campus site to Free Hong Kong road, Dalai Lama road, and Uyghur Martyrs' road to highlight Chinese human rights sore points.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday that the move was beneath contempt but added that it shouldn't affect the project.
Orban's government argues that a prestigious outpost of Fudan university would permit thousands of Hungarian and international students to acquire high-quality qualifications.
It would also fit in with an older plan to build a Student City dormitory project for thousands of Hungarian students at the site, it insists, although Karacsony, who is eyeing a run against Orban at a general election next year, fears the Fudan campus would take over most of the area.
Saturday's protest made no sense as the process is still at the planning stage, Tamas Schanda, a government official, said Saturday, adding that final decisions would be made in the second half of 2022.
Fudan is the latest landmark in Orban's foreign policy of Eastern Opening, which analysts describe as a geopolitical balancing act.
Critics portray the nationalist prime minister as China and Russia's Trojan horse inside the European Union and Nato.
The courting of Fudan, which deleted references to freedom of thought from its charter in 2019, also fuels concerns about academic freedom in Hungary.
In 2018, the Central European University, founded by liberal Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros, said it was forced out of Budapest to Vienna after a bitter legal dispute with Orban.