Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pledges to ‘restart’ ties with China

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Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pledged to “relaunch” Italy’s ties with China at the start of a state visit to China after Italy’s dramatic decision last year to withdraw from Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Meloni, who met Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday at the start of a five-day visit, said the trip “demonstrates the will to resume bilateral cooperation and start a new stage” after the turmoil.

But later, speaking at an Italy-China business forum in Beijing, Meloni said strengthening economic ties also required efforts to “make trade relations fairer and more beneficial for all”.

“It is clear that we cannot hide the problem of large imbalances with a significant deficit for Italy,” she told executives at the forum, pointing to the need for better access to the Chinese market and stronger protection of intellectual property.

Meloni and Li signed a three-year “action plan” to strengthen industrial cooperation and an agreement on food safety. The Italian premier is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday.

China’s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Keqiang, hosted a welcoming ceremony for Mr. Meloni at the Great Hall of the People, but afterwards Li warned him that “protectionism cannot protect competitiveness.”

“We hope the EU will view China’s development objectively and deepen dialogue and cooperation,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted him as saying.

Meloni is keen to minimise the impact of Italy’s withdrawal from the BRI, a $1 trillion global infrastructure investment programme that Italy joined in 2019 over the displeasure of the United States and other Western allies.

Meloni himself has publicly criticised then-Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s decision to sign off on Xi’s plan as a “mistake”, and his government formally notified Beijing in December of its intention to withdraw from the project.

Many Italian businesses remain concerned that Beijing will retaliate over the decision, but Italy has sought to minimize the damage with a carefully choreographed low-key retreat in which Meloni stressed his commitment to maintaining a “mutually beneficial” relationship.

“We need to maintain ties with China, given that the economic sustainability of Italian exports depends on the quality of our relationship with China,” said Giuliano Noci, a professor at the School of Management at the Politecnico di Milano.

“This visit is of economic importance for Italy,” he added, “so it is true that Italy has withdrawn from the Belt and Road Initiative, but it recognises China’s special position and aims to foster strategic dialogue.”

Michele Geraci, a former Italian government official who advocated for Italy’s BRI participation in 2019, said Beijing would probably also want to move past its recent setbacks.

“China’s goal is to make it look like everything is fine,” he said. “They’re not really interested in highlighting Italy’s withdrawal from the Belt and Road initiative. They don’t like it, but they don’t want to make a fuss about it.”

Shortly before Meloni’s arrival, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, the Global Times, blamed the United States for Italy’s withdrawal from the Belt and Road initiative and reported that economic and trade ties remained strong.

“Italy’s withdrawal from the BRI was not due to any reluctance to cooperate with China, nor due to Meloni’s own political beliefs, but rather due to the enormous pressure it faced from the United States and other major Western countries at the time,” the paper quoted the analyst as saying.

China has sought to lobby European governments to exploit differences between the United States and European countries on issues ranging from Ukraine to trade and export controls.

Cui Hongjian, an analyst at the China Institute of International Studies, said Beijing will probably also boost Italy’s support for EU tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars.

But China’s top priority is to stabilize bilateral ties in the face of geopolitical uncertainties, including those caused by the U.S. presidential election. Cui said China would convey to Italy that “bilateral ties need to be more resilient.”

But Meloni himself has been wary of China, criticising its unfair trade practices and warning of potential risks to Europe’s over-reliance on Chinese companies in strategic supply chains.

“It is vital that partners truly cooperate and play by the rules so that all companies can operate on a level playing field in the international market,” she told a business forum on Sunday.

As youth minister in the government of the late Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, she called on the Italian athletes to boycott the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in protest against China’s human rights record, particularly in Tibet.

Recently, the Italian government has sought to strip China’s Sinochem, the largest shareholder in Italian tire maker Pirelli, citing national security concerns. Italy also supports the imposition of high EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

During Meloni’s visit, the two countries were commemorating 700 years since the death of Italian explorer Marco Polo, and bilateral trade last year reached 66.8 billion euros, heavily in Beijing’s favour.

But Mr Djerassi said the visit was unlikely to yield much: “The Chinese government strongly believes she is not in favour of doing business with China,” he said.

Additional reporting by Giuliana Riccozzi in Rome.