China, Hungary, and the Belgrade-Budapest Railway Upgrade: New Politically-Induced Dimensions of FDI and the Trajectory of Hungarian Economic Development

Since 2010, Hungarian political agency has become more dominant in determining economic outcomes, rendering the increase in Chinese FDI into Hungary more politically-induced, rather than market-driven making Sino-Hungarian economic relations more important than before Fidesz returned to government. Approaches to understanding Hungarian capitalism have been overly firm-focused and therefore cannot account for (a) politically-motivated decisions on FDI or (b) increasingly significant transnational capital flows from China, both of which have the potential to affect the trajectory of Hungarian economic development. This article investigates the Belgrade-Budapest railway upgrade, the largest infrastructure project funded by Chinese FDI.