Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has embarked on her first trip to China since taking office. Her five-day visit comes at a time of rising trade tensions between the E.U. and China, and growing polarization between China and major Western countries. While Meloni backed out of the China-led Belt and Road Initiative last December, she is now seeking to renew economic ties with Beijing. The visit is a first test of whether the new phase in Italy-China ties that Meloni is pursuing can sufficiently benefit both countries and navigate broader geopolitical fault lines. Joe Cash from Reuters described Meloni’s meeting with Xi Jinping and their discussion of pressing international issues:

Meloni, whose country currently holds the rotating G7 presidency, stressed the importance of China as a partner in dealing with growing global insecurity during their talks.

The two leaders addressed the “priority issues on the international agenda from the war in Ukraine to the risks of a further escalation of the situation in the Middle East. They also discussed the growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific,” the Italian leader’s office said in a statement.

[…] “There is growing insecurity at the international level, and I think that China is inevitably a very important interlocutor to deal with all these dynamics,” Meloni said during the talks at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guest House.

[…] “China and Italy should uphold the spirit of the Silk Road … so that the bridge of communication between East and West through it can rebound into a new era.” [Source]

Meloni held talks with Premier Li Qiang on Sunday and attended an Italy-China business forum, where they announced six new agreements in various fields including renewable energy and EVs. Ken Moritsugu from the Associated Press described the new three-year action plan that both leaders signed:

Li, addressing Italian and Chinese business leaders after the meeting with Meloni, said that China’s push to upgrade its economy will increase demand for high-quality products, expanding opportunities for cooperation between companies from their two countries.

He pledged to open Chinese markets further, ensure that foreign companies get the same treatment as Chinese ones and create a transparent and predictable business environment, responding to frequently heard complaints from businesses operating in the world’s second-largest economy.

“At the same time, we hope the Italian side will work with China to provide a more fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies doing business in Italy,” he said.

Meloni told the business leaders that the two sides had signed an industrial collaboration memorandum that includes electric vehicles and renewable energy, which she described as “sectors where China has already been operating on the technological frontier for some time … and is sharing the new frontiers of knowledge with partners.” [Source]

Historically, Italy has experienced alternating periods of rapprochement and distancing from China, but successive governments have overall maintained mostly positive stances toward Beijing. João da Silva from the BBC described the dynamics of Italy and China’s current bilateral relationship under Meloni:

Ms Meloni said her visit to China was an effort to “relaunch” the relationship.

[…] “Every country which is a [BRI] member knows that China is first and they are second and I don’t think Italy as a G7 member wanted to be grouped together with Russia, Pakistan or Sri Lanka,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for the Asia Pacific region at investment bank Natixis.

“Without BRI [membership] Meloni is coming to China at a different level of engagement – less as a vassal and more as a partner,” she added. [Source]

Meloni’s criticism of the BRI was one of many examples of her long-standing skepticism towards China, as Amy Kazmin and Joe Leahy from The Financial Times reported: 

Meloni herself has always viewed China warily, accusing it of unfair trade practices and warning of a potential risk to Europe from over-dependence on Chinese companies in strategic supply chains.

“It is vital that our partners are genuinely co-operative, that they play by the rules to ensure that every company can operate in international markets on a level playing field,” she told the business forum on Sunday.

As a youth minister in the government of late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, she urged Italian athletes to boycott the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in protest at China’s human rights record, especially in Tibet.

More recently, her government invoked national security concerns to strip China’s Sinochem of its influence as the largest shareholder in Italian tyremaker Pirelli. Italy also supports the imposition of steep EU tariffs on China’s electric vehicles. [Source]

Chinese media framed Meloni’s visit as a way to “clear misunderstandings” over Italy’s withdrawal from the BRI. Chinese pundits also invoked Marco Polo’s visit to China to emphasize the promise of deeper cooperation between both countries. Zhao Ziwen and Alyssa Chen from the South China Morning Post shared expert reactions to Meloni’s visit and the predictions about its effect on the future bilateral relationships:

Nicola Casarini, a senior Asia fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome, said: “Meloni’s visit to China will be a message to the European Commission to be less hawkish in its relations with the Asian giant, a stance that will be certainly supported by Hungary, which holds the presidency of the EU until year-end.”

He said Chinese leaders were also keen on “relaunching relations with European countries” and the three-year deal between the two countries had “been devised as a way to repair China-Italy ties” after the exit from the Belt and Road Initiative.

Sebastian Contin Trillo-Figueroa, a former Asia global fellow specialising in European studies at the University of Hong Kong, said the newly signed three-year partnership plan between the two countries was a “rebranding effort” and would only work if the economic imbalance was addressed.

“It remains to be seen how Italian businesses can invest more effectively in China, given the existing barriers for all European companies, especially in the services sector,” he added.

[…] “In terms of the economic relationship, she will be much more pragmatic, or actually more investment focused, but in terms of politics or foreign policies, I think she will still make herself aligned with the general direction of the West,” said [Wilson Chan Wai-Shun, a specialist in European studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong]. [Source]

European leaders have seized the opportunity of state visits to China to sign bilateral economic deals, often while ignoring calls for multilateral, unified European approaches to China and the economic and geopolitical challenges it poses. Germany’s Olaf Scholz snubbed France’s Emmanuel Macron in November 2022 to make the first visit to Beijing of a G7 leader since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Scholz again visited Beijing alone in April of this year despite criticism of Germany’s growing economic dependence and European disunity. Macron’s trip to China last April also was heavy on business deals and short on European trust.