Hungarian PM claims US losing power to China, must admit it cannot be 'winner' forever

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban avered during a speech on Saturday that the United States is likely losing its hegemony to China, dubbing the latter a "manufacturing powerhouse." During an annual speech in the Romanian town of Baile Tusnad, Orban said that Washington needs to let go of its global status and accept that it cannot be the "winner" forever. 

“[China] has become a manufacturing powerhouse and is now overtaking America,” he said, adding that the latter's adamance to not accept the power shift can result in a serious conflict. The Hungarian leader noted that Beijing has gone through a substantial industrial change in three decades, while the West took nearly three centuries to achieve the same amount.

Slamming Washington's core values that Beijing perceives as a “hostile ideology,” Orban suggested that “there is some truth in it" and the Western power is on the brink of saying "goodbye" to the power it holds in the world, RT reported. “There are no eternal winners and eternal losers,” he continued, emphasising that no nation can perpetually stay “on top of the world”. 

He insisted that it is the chances of two superpowers locking horns are high, but not unavoidable. To avert a conflict, it is necessary to strike a new balance and for the two nations to accept each other as equals. Orban urged nations across the globe to  “accept that, today, instead of American dominance, there are two suns in the sky." 

Orban hits out at US, Europe 

The Hungarian PM also claimed that Europe does not have much hope either and is losing its dominance over global economy, citing his remark to the West's hostile policies against Russia. The EU is already “rich but weak,” he said, adding that its downward trajectory could continue as a result of the string of sanctions against Moscow. 

Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, Budapest has maintained a strikingly different stance, repeatedly slamming the EU for providing assistance to Kyiv. Earlier in June, Orban asserted in a conversation with German outlet Bild that Kyiv's victory on the battlefield is next to "impossible."