ABSTRACT
This chapter expands analysis into Hungary's post-2010 external capital relations. Empirically, it investigates the Belgrade-Budapest railway upgrade, the second largest infrastructure project financed by Chinese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the post-socialist European region to-date, both of which are in Hungary. It complements the previous chapter by arguing that significant opportunities for regime and regime-loyal actors to profit from this agreement and the rail link's subsequent use for the transport of Chinese-manufactured goods further strengthen the regime. Simultaneously, it identifies a menu of potential advantages to the deal, mirroring those identified in the previous chapter. This chapter highlights the importance of conducting deeper research into what it terms the China-Germany-Hungary tripartite where Hungary acts as host to advancing Sino-German firm interactions. Such inquiry would help uncover how far these developments affect the Hungarian and German political economies – particularly with reference to the automobile sector – broader Sino-EU relations, and what this means for the EU's so-called ‘de-ricking’ agenda. This chapter also provides qualitative data collected during interviews undertaken in Hungary between 2017 and 2023 to support the arguments this research makes and supplements them with statistical data derived from secondary sources.
