To be clear, I'm not a Trump hater. I try to look at everything policy by policy.
Given the US-China relationship and the tariffs, decoupling, rhetoric, etc., why was the Trump administration so interested in keeping Orban in power in Hungary? China was using Hungary as their base for deploying their economic dumping strategy into Europe. A win for Orban would have been a win for the Chinese economy. The new guy seems to have the same Hardline rhetoric on immigration and is mostly the same as Orban on policy with the exception of the relationship with the European Union.
Hungary had been skirting the EU environmental, supply chain, and labor regulations to invite BYD and CATL to build plants there. Orban allowed China to more than triple their foreign investment into Hungary over the last few years. Ultimately they were likely going to use Hungary as a base from which to mass produce vehicles at very low cost, subsidized by the Chinese supply chain and Chinese government, to dump into the EU which would have killed the EU auto industry while at the same time bolstering a high-tech but collapsing auto industry in China. There are so many cars being made in China that they are selling to locals at a loss, if they are able to sell at all. They need new markets.
The election last week was a huge loss for China in the region. The new guy wants to uphold Hungary's obligation to the EU economic regulations, meaning China will be required to source a high percentage of equipment, labor, and supply chain from Europe if they want to maintain investment. This neuters their dumping plan.
I know the EU hasn't exactly been great to the Trump administration, but it seems like we should be a bit more pushy with China. Europe is not a threat to us or our economy.
Is it a Ukraine thing? Is it something personal related to the ridiculous impeachment related to a non-inportant phone call with Ukraine? Orban didn't support Ukraine, Trump blames Ukraine for impeachment, therefore Trump wanted to keep him in power? Surely it couldn't be that simple.
Given the US-China relationship and the tariffs, decoupling, rhetoric, etc., why was the Trump administration so interested in keeping Orban in power in Hungary? China was using Hungary as their base for deploying their economic dumping strategy into Europe. A win for Orban would have been a win for the Chinese economy. The new guy seems to have the same Hardline rhetoric on immigration and is mostly the same as Orban on policy with the exception of the relationship with the European Union.
Hungary had been skirting the EU environmental, supply chain, and labor regulations to invite BYD and CATL to build plants there. Orban allowed China to more than triple their foreign investment into Hungary over the last few years. Ultimately they were likely going to use Hungary as a base from which to mass produce vehicles at very low cost, subsidized by the Chinese supply chain and Chinese government, to dump into the EU which would have killed the EU auto industry while at the same time bolstering a high-tech but collapsing auto industry in China. There are so many cars being made in China that they are selling to locals at a loss, if they are able to sell at all. They need new markets.
The election last week was a huge loss for China in the region. The new guy wants to uphold Hungary's obligation to the EU economic regulations, meaning China will be required to source a high percentage of equipment, labor, and supply chain from Europe if they want to maintain investment. This neuters their dumping plan.
I know the EU hasn't exactly been great to the Trump administration, but it seems like we should be a bit more pushy with China. Europe is not a threat to us or our economy.
Is it a Ukraine thing? Is it something personal related to the ridiculous impeachment related to a non-inportant phone call with Ukraine? Orban didn't support Ukraine, Trump blames Ukraine for impeachment, therefore Trump wanted to keep him in power? Surely it couldn't be that simple.