They fear that Italy will become a "Trojan horse" for a Chinese invasion of Europe

ROME.- Will Chinese be spoken soon in the ports of Genoa or Trieste? This is the question that many are asking in

Italy

on the eve of the state visit that will begin this Thursday, the Chinese president

Xi Jinping

, accompanied by more than 70 industrialists. The populist government should then sign a controversial memorandum of understanding by which Italy will enter the "New Silk Road".

This has been renamed the
"Belt and Road Initiative" launched by XI in 2013, an economic-diplomatic plan to improve the Asian giant's trade relations with Eurasia. It is a megaproject that has so far represented 140 000 million dollars of investments, which currently concerns 68 countries and nearly 65% ​​of the world population, which worries the Western Chancellors because of its geopolitical effects.

In fact, the United States and the European Union (EU) have clearly warned the Italian populist government that they oppose such an initiative. Washington, which has a trade dispute with Beijing, has said that the signing of an agreement between Italy and China could jeopardize Italy's role in NATO, as this would involve an entry of the Asian giant into companies of strategic interest at a time. only in the telecommunications sector.

The White House fears that Italy, a country in recession and whose public debt is equivalent to 132% of its budget, will become a virtual "Trojan horse" with which Beijing could obtain a "penetration in Europe". For Brussels, the agreement "jeopardizes" not only the EU's single market, but also the economic and social values ​​of the bloc, China having become a "systemic opponent with different management models" .

Italy will become the first and only member of the G7 (and the only country of the six founders of the EU) to sign a memorandum with China to join the New Silk Road. What Asian countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka and some Eastern European countries have already done. From 2008 to 2016, Chinese foreign investment in Europe increased from $ 1 billion to $ 35 billion, with the epicenter located in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

How could it be otherwise, the question of the New Silk Road puts again in crisis the coalition of the Italian populist government, with the Anti-system Movement Five Star (M5E) of the Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, in favor of the Memorandum and Right League of Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, against. "We will not let China go out and colonize Italy," said Matteo Salvini, who asked for a revision and a correction of the points of agreement, "so that Italian companies and the national interest be respected. Otherwise, "skip everything", he warned. Salvini, who is also Interior Minister, was particularly concerned about the opening to the "Chinese" of the "digital infrastructure" of the port of Trieste, strategic stopover to be the northernmost of the Mediterranean , as well as that of Genoa.

Like Di Maio, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has tried to rebadure the United States – the strategic ally of the peninsula – and the EU, saying that "there is no risk of colonization "nor of" geopolitical penetration ". He stressed that the memorandum would provide an opportunity for economic growth for the country.

But the United States and the EU remain on the alert. And it makes sense. After Di Maio traveled twice to China, in September and November, when he was paying the ground to enter the New Silk Road, Italy became the only country among EU founders not to sign letter of fifteen accredited ambbadadors to Beijing, requesting information on the arbitrary detention of hundreds of thousands of people in the Muslim region of Xinjiang. "Countries like Britain, Germany – the largest European trading partner in Beijing – and France have signed, and it is very significant that Italy, ostensibly under Chinese influence, is not the only country in the world. He did not do it, "he said.
THE NATION Emanuel Leonard, a Brussels-based political badyst, has not concealed his concern over this move from Italy.

"China usually invests heavily in countries facing serious economic problems, with huge debts, as in Greece in the port of Piraeus, but then turns them into hostages and enslaved them," he said. "In order not to criticize China, Greece has abstained once before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights," he added.

For Leonard, if Italy seals bilateral agreements with the world's second-largest economy, it will never have favorable conditions, but will eventually be crushed in the "debt trap". If it does it at European level, together with other EU partners, it will have greater bargaining power. "But China promotes the" divide and conquer "strategy in Europe, taking advantage of Eurosceptic populist governments," he said. Leonard therefore shares the fear of many observers who believe that Beijing's expectations towards Italy are far more than a celebration of the ancient splendours of the Silk Road, Marco Polo and Venice.