Meloni takes made in Italy to China to build the post-Silk Road

The preliminary investigation that prepared Giorgia Meloni's visit to China was long and laborious. Work has been going on for over a year. Since after the face-to-face that the premier had in Bali, on the occasion of the G20, with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The last Prime Minister to come to China had been in 2019 Giuseppe Conte. Since then, a five-year period has passed. Five years in which relations have radically changed, in parallel with the escalation of international crises, Beijing's rapprochement (and support) for Moscow, and the growing clash not only with the US but with Europe, which reacted with duties to Chinese dumping on electric cars and biofuels. Italy's most obvious confirmation came with its exit from the Silk Road. A farewell that, however, took place without any bombastic announcements on Meloni's part. The Prime Minister has always blamed the decision to opt out not on political but on economic issues, on the failure to achieve the 'hoped-for results', so much so that the trade deficit in favour of China in the four years in which the memorandum was in force has risen sharply. And it is precisely the rebalancing and revival of economic relations with Beijing that is the focus of the four-day trip that will end on Wednesday in Shanghai.

Meloni landed in Beijing yesterday afternoon (her daughter Ginevra is also with her) and will meet Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang today. The Italian leader arrives in China while she is still at the head of the G7 and in this capacity too, she will meet with the Chinese president tomorrow on the role that China can play both in the war in Ukraine and on the Middle East front. Just think of the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea that hit Western cargo ships, starting with Italian ones, and spared Chinese ones.

At the centre of the mission, however, is above all the economy. In Beijing, Meloni will inaugurate the seventh edition of the Italy-China Business Forum, which will be attended by some of the big names in the energy and industrial sector and in the made-in-Italy sector such as, among others, Eni, Leonardo, Iveco, Fincantieri, Snam, Prysmian, Pirelli, Intesa, Generali, Prada, and Dolce&Gabbana. The government's objective, we learn from Italian sources, is to impart a positive dynamic to trade, which in 2023 stood at 66.8 billion euro, making China Italy's second non-EU partner, after the USA. Added to this is a stock of Italian foreign direct investments amounting to 15 billion and more than 1600 Italian companies active in the country in the textile, mechanical engineering, pharmaceutical, energy and heavy industry sectors.

The Prime Minister, who will also participate in the ceremony to commemorate the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death, wants to return to Rome having obtained concrete assurances on strengthening the partnership with the Dragon, as Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have done before her: from investments in Italy on automotive to the improvement of exports to China of Italian-made products, to the facilitation of increasing tourist demand. At the same time and equally decisive will be to emerge from the confrontation with Xi Jinping with a clear and recognisable posture on international politics that can offer a contribution to his allies in Europe as in the USA. Regardless of who will win the race for the White House and which portfolio Ursula von der Leyen will want to entrust to the Italian Commissioner.