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Chinese police will patrol in Hungary alongside Hungarian officers after an agreement with Budapest, raising fears of Beijing oppression being meted out in Europe (www.telegraph.co.uk)

submitted 8 months ago by 0x815@feddit.de to c/europe@feddit.de

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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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[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 76 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Gigasser@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Does Hungary have a lot of Chinese expats?

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 17 points 8 months 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

[–] infeeeee@lemm.ee 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Gigasser@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months 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.

[–] BlushedPotatoPlayers@sopuli.xyz 4 points 8 months 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).