Trade, but also human rights, with an eye to safeguarding Taiwan. Italy is looking for a new path for relations with Beijing, and Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni meet in Bali. A step that is not taken for granted and certainly one that should be explored in terms of the difficult relations between the EU and Beijing, given the attention and concern of Brussels towards the Chinese giant and its “systemic” penetration into the Western world. But times are not easy, strong interlocutors are needed after the Russian aggression against Ukraine, all of this rewrites the agenda in the short term, but naturally we are also thinking of a longer perspective. Meloni is certainly not on the same flattened positions on Beijing as the yellow-green Conte-1 government, which signed the protocol on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the only Western country. China is always ready to do business, but weighs everything, including the Dalai Lama’s best wishes to Meloni on the day of his inauguration, complete with an affectionate response full of “feelings of friendship”. And, in the background (but not too much) the strategic theme of “decoupling” pursued by the United States, the progressive detachment of the two economies, even if for now it is limited to national security (and in part to the giant Apple).
Direct investments and trade are growing
But let’s get to business. To understand what’s really going on. Good: according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, between January and August of this year, a complex period for the war and the energy crisis, Chinese direct non-financial investments in Italy increased, in the first three quarters of 2022, moreover, the trade volume reached 60.5 billion dollars (+13.3%) Italy is the fourth trading partner among the EU countries, and China imports 40 billion dollars of made in Italy products. Intertwined economies therefore, even if Germany is always at the top of the rankings in Europe, so much so that the chancellor Olaf Scholz went on a visit, not without controversy. Certainly the underlying theme remains national security, therefore maximum attention to hostile takeovers (golden power has been used five times in the last two years on Chinese investments in Italy) and penetrations of technological infrastructures, and therefore also the use of 5G.
Strategic presences, in Cdp, in the ports and in Pirelli
In any case there are many agreements and financial presences. The State Grid Corporation (SGC), the state-owned electricity services giant and the largest public utility company in the world, controls 35 percent of Cdp Reti, a company of the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti group which manages equity investments in Snam, Italgas and Terna to support the development of strategic Italian infrastructures in the gas and electricity sectors. In ports, China has been present in Italy since 2016, in Vado Ligure, where Cosco (the entry of the Chinese giant into one of the terminals in the port of Hamburg is well known, a controversial operation) has invested 53 million euros for 40 percent of the port, and Qingdao 15.5 million for 9.9 percent. Finally, the majority presence of ChemChina in Pirelli should be mentioned.
The agreement for the sale to China of at least 250 ATR aircraft produced in Pomigliano d’Arco
A few hours before the Meloni-Xi bilateral meeting in Bali on 16 November, Beijing also gave the go-ahead for the purchase by 2035 of at least 250 Italian-French-owned ATR aircraft (Leonardo and Airbus). Behind the purchase a very long negotiation, which lasted 36 months of negotiations. We are talking about the 42 600 turboprop aircraft produced in the Pomigliano d’Arco plants. An agreement that Palazzo Chigi define as “a milestone in access to the Chinese market”.