Hungary’s interior ministry claimed the deal would improve safety in tourist hotspots or during events that attract large numbers of spectators.

But the plan has drawn criticism from those concerned the agreement will be abused by communist China, which has a lengthy record of human rights abuses.

The patrols could be the first step to establishing secret police stations or used to intimidate the overseas Chinese community, they warned.

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[+] 187 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I too would like to know what the actual fuck this is ?!?!

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  • [–] 101 points 2 years ago (3 children)
    1. WTF?!
    2. I thought China denied that there are any Chinese "police" stations in Europe?

    I hope the EU permanently cuts Hungary's funding and takes away their voting rights now. This fascist shit in the middle of Europe has to stop.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 years ago

    230,000 Chinese "persuaded to return" from abroad, China to establish Extraterritoriality


    (Sep 2022)

    A new law adopted 2 September, going into effect 1 December, establishes full extraterritoriality over Chinese and foreigners globally for certain crimes (fraud, telecom fraud, online scams, etc.)

    A follow-up to this investigation with additional information, 'Patrol and Persuade', has been released in Dec 2022, and again in Nov 2023, 'China's Consular Volunteers.'

    There are lot of other reports across the web, e.g., for Netherlands, the U.S., and many others.

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  • [–] 50 points 2 years ago (21 children)

    Why does China need to extend its police to patrol globally exactly?

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  • [–] 76 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Lets them spy on Chinese nationals who are studying and working in the west

    That's also the big thing security experts are actually worried about when they talk about the threat posed by TikTok,

    It's not that it spies just on you, it's that your instance is also spying on everyone around you. It'll identify Chinese nationals in your proximity and start collecting data on what they're up to, and if Beijing doesn't like what they're seeing, those police will pay them a visit, not to arrest them of course, just to let them know how disappointed their families will be in them...from inside the reeducation camp.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Does Hungary have a lot of Chinese expats?

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago

    If the number is more than 1, then according the Beijing, yes.

    Also Hungary is close enough to everyone else that the occasional espionage agent can slip into the rest of Europe more easily

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    According to 2022 census data 18000 Chinese nationals live in Hungary, 15000 from that live in Budapest, they are the most popolous foreign community there.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I did a little digging, and I found out that a lot of Triads do business in Hungary. Perhaps this collaboration is due to that? Although it's probably most likely just Orban trying to curry favor with Beijing.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    As far as expats go, yes, Chinese are probably the largest group, their numbers are estimated around 18k now (used to maybe 50k in the 90s) but this is a lower estimate, since a lot of them are here without a citizenship. In 2013 a visa program was started when they could basically buy a citizenship if they buy government bonds for 250-300k€ (plus they pay a handling fee of 50k for a politician's company).

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    They do it covertly, too.

    China wants to maintain full control of anyone who it views as it’s citizens (importantly distinct from actual citizens), regardless of whether or not they’re in China, and regardless of whether or not they have PRC citizenship or not.

    Most nations would object to this, especially if it involves the PRC exerting jurisdiction within the host country’s borders, potentially on the host country’s citizens, and almost certainly on the host country’s legal residents. Orban, evidently, does not.

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    [–] 38 points 2 years ago

    I had to do a double take on that headline. What the hell, it's actually real.

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  • [–] 36 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I guess I was wrong about Orbán. He seemed to want his boots licked, turns out he wants to be a bootlicker. Go figure.

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    How many foreign police offices does China allow within its borders?

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Baffling. I read the article but wondering if some kind of rationalization is outlined somewhere else.

    Police represent the authority of the state and have a monopoly on violence. They only "earn" that monopoly because ostensibly they have been authorized democratically by the people. (Much more could be said about that) Chinese police in Hungary do not represent Hungarian people and so they should not be in any kind of position of authority.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago

    You see police brutality from wish.com is 70% cheaper than local police brutality so this is a win for every Hungarian

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Oh my god im so fucking lucky i moved away from that shithole. Sadly my sister goes to school there and my grandmother still lives there.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    What in the fucking hell

    edit: like, what in the fucking fuck?

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You mean the guy who was just in Mar-A-Lago?

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Looks like the EU parliament needs to say "no fucking way"...so maybe in 5-10 years Hungary will get a sternly written letter.

    But hey, I phones have to have USB-Cs so....

    ....yeah

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    USB-C on phones is a good thing. The reason why the USB-C requirement passed while pressure on the Hungarian government fails is not because more people worked on the USB-C directive than work on strategies to pressure the Hungarian government. Rather there were considerably fewer people working against the USB-C directive.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    Are they like fining Chinese tourist there or what are they supposed to do? Ignoring the fact that foreign police has no say on Hungarian soil.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    Isn’t Hungary and Orban the guy that always talks about how dangerous western countries have become due to liberal/progressive laws while their conservative approach is keeping crime low? So do they have low crime and no need, high crime and a need for support, or low crime but with no sustainable way to keep policing at that level?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    China should be completely isolated.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Sketchy af, but my opinion will depend alot on what exactly will be done.

    In certain places in Germany (e.g. Nürnberg train station) the US military police is patrolling (or used to patrol) together with regular German police, because there have been incidents in the past of US army personnel not listening to german police.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Are there incidents of overseas Chinese not listening to the Hungarian police? If not, what's the justification here?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    I don't know, I'm just saying there could be actual reasons for it and it's not a bad thing per se.

    Edit: the article says the justification is

    helping to improve communication between the citizens and the authorities of the two countries

    There are a ton of Chinese speakers. I can imagine small tourist spots getting overwhelmed during Chinese school holidays. Having translators with some authority can greatly increase crowd control.

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