Hungarian opposition politician, confronted by Chinese “volunteer gendarmes” in Budapest, during Xi Jinping’s visit. What did they ask him?

A Hungarian lawmaker from the opposition Momentum party said he and a colleague were approached in Budapest on Wednesday by Chinese nationals claiming to be Chinese embassy volunteers who wanted to make sure the pair did not place Tibetan or Taiwanese flags on a bridge , before the visit of Xi Jinping, write the Hungarian publication HVG and the Associated Press.

Budapest residents faced restrictions, closed roads and tight security on Thursday as groups of supporters and critics of Xi Jinping gathered in various parts of the city to demonstrate.

Hundreds of people gathered near Buda Castle, waving Chinese and Hungarian flags, hoping to catch a glimpse of Xi’s motorcade. The demonstrations were attended by many Chinese citizens wearing red baseball caps, who claimed to be volunteers from the Chinese embassy, ​​writes the Associated Press.

Against this backdrop, a Hungarian lawmaker from the opposition Momentum party said he and a colleague were accosted by a group of such men on Wednesday as they tried to place EU flags on a bridge in Budapest.

In a video posted on X, MP Márton Tompos said the men, all wearing red caps, confronted him to ensure no flags or symbols referring to Tibet or Taiwan would be hung along the route of his convoy Xi.

“They told me they were volunteers for the Chinese embassy here and they said they wanted to make sure there were no Tibetan or Taiwanese flags because it wouldn’t be nice,” Tompos said. The men did not let his colleague continue “until he showed them it was an EU flag”, he added.

“Budapest is full of volunteer Chinese gendarmes in red caps to protect Xi Jinping, aka Winnie-the-Pooh, from the ‘unfriendly’ flags of the Tibetans and Taiwanese,” wrote Márton Tompos on X.

Asked by Hungarian publication HVG about the matter, Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, questioned the credibility of the Momentum politician, but added that if this happened, then it must be investigated.

The status of the Chinese “volunteers” on the streets of Budapest during Xi Jinping’s visit is unclear. But the Hungarian press wrote in March that Chinese police officers will be able to patrol in Hungary, following a bilateral agreement signed by the two countries.

Budapest’s interior ministry confirmed in a written response to the Hungarian news site Telex that “police officers from the two countries (not Hungary and China) will be able to carry out joint patrols in the future, thus helping to improve communication between citizens and authorities of the two countries, improving internal security and public order”.

According to the Hungarian interior ministry, the agreement reached between the two countries aims to increase security in tourist areas during peak summer periods and generally during events that attract large groups of people.

In any case, the harsh restrictions imposed by the Hungarian authorities did not allow the protesters to approach Xi Jinping’s motorcade.

On Thursday, when Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok and Xi Jinping met with the Hussars at the Lion Court, several Momentum members and activists went to protest at Buda Castle.

One of the demonstrators dressed in a costume of the character Winnie the Pooh, while others wore t-shirts with the same character, as well as Tibetan and Taiwanese flags.

They also had a speaker that performed songs about Winnie the Pooh.

Xi Jinping has been frequently compared to Winnie the Pooh in various internet images – a form of satire on the Chinese leader and his carefully maintained public image.

The jokes worked, with Chinese authorities strictly censoring any such comparisons.