Hungary: Plan to build Chinese university branch protested

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Several thousand people have rallied in Hungary’s capital Saturday against plans by Prime Minister Viktor Orban to host a Chinese university in Budapest. A strategic agreement that Hungary signed with Shanghai-based Fudan University envisages building a branch in the city by 2024. It would enroll international students and represent the school’s only foreign outpost. Budapest authorities have opposed the idea. They argue the $1.9 billion project would burden taxpayers and send the wrong political message because of the alleged human rights abuses in China. Protesters marched from Heroes’ Square toward the Hungarian parliament building on Saturday, defying a pandemic ban on gatherings of more than 500 people. The crowd carried banners reading ’No Fudan.”