Airbus, Volkswagen and Italy’s relations with China to be clarified – Corriere.it

Regardless of the countries that have joined it, the choice that Italy is preparing to take on Belt and road initiative China, the “New Silk Road”, is indicative of how necessary a clarity of vision on one’s country-strategy is. A first consideration is that Italy in Europe is not among the countries with the closest ties to China. In a study carried out by the «Economist» it can be seen that among the six major European economic powers (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom), our country accounts for about a fifth of exports and revenues from China what Germany does. France and Germany, to get an idea, have trade with China equal to three times that of the United States; Italy half of the States. This highlights our weakness in the relationship with what is starting to be the largest economic power in the world. A weakness that is reflected in the ability to negotiate with Beijing.

It is no coincidence that neither Paris nor Berlin have not only not participated in the «Belt and Road initiative», but at the same time see a frequency of trips by their heads of government to China much higher than ours. This tells us how much Italy can simply be a pawn for Beijing, certainly not a partner. Also because, and we come to another element of weakness, we have few large companies that can think on a global scale (essentially the three public subsidiaries Eni, Enel and Leonardo). Macron on his recent trip to China was accompanied, among other things, by the top management of Airbus who signed agreements for the sale of about 160 aircraft. The Chinese subsidiary of Volkswagen (Vw) has such a powerful weight in the group that, in the event of a sensational decoupling, between the Western and Chinese economies, it could think of separating, if necessary, its own activities from those of the parent company . It becomes clear in cases like these what the term country-system means. And the damage of not being.