Grillo on Italy-China relations: “The stop to the Silk Road? A mistake. Meloni cannot give up on everything”

“Italy cannot give up on everything”. These are the words with which Beppe Grillo on his blog he defends the Silk Road, arguing that “tearing up” the memorandum linking Rome to Beijing would be a mistake. To support his thesis, the founder of the Movimento 5 Stelle cites the post by Fabio Massimo Parenti, professor of International Political Economy at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. “Despite the obvious advantages in strengthening economic relations between Italy and China – Parenti writes – Rome seems to be the victim of its endemic limitation of sovereignty, the result of an unwritten dependence on the United States since the end of the Second World War. As the only true power Mediterranean in Europe, thanks to its privileged position, Italy is traditionally under special surveillance”.

Therefore, the post continues, “regardless of the colors of individual governments, the country seems to want to continue sacrificing national interests on the altar of geopolitical ties. Consequently, it should not be surprising that, according to Bloomberg, Melons he would have expressed his willingness to break the agreement with China during a meeting with the spokesman of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy“.

Relaunching Pranti’s article, Grillo’s blog therefore recalls that “under the first government With you, formed by the Five Star Movement and the League, Italy had tried to carry out an unprecedented political experiment with the aim of reviving the Italian economy after seven years of financial austerity in the framework of the EU Pact for Stability and Growth. The intention of that government was to recover the country’s negotiating power vis-à-vis the supranational institutions to which it belongs, i.e. the EU and NATO”.

In this context, the post reads, “looking at the BRICS represented the possibility of diversifying Italian foreign trade and foreign policy carriers. The decision to sign the Silk Road agreement made Italy the first and so far only country of the G7 to have joined the Chinese mega-plan, unleashing the scathing criticism of the allies”. Today, “the Italian business world is very worried. After having suffered the enormous damage deriving from the increase in energy prices and the devastating impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the European economy, Italian companies fear a possible deterioration in relations between Italy and China, right now that record numbers are being recorded in terms of exports to the Asian giant (+92.5% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year)”.

According to Parenti “the pressure on Italy with respect to the Silk Road has to do exclusively with the US strategic agenda and with their interests, not with Italian or European ones. If Italy were to compromise its relations with China , – concludes the post published on Grillo’s blog – would be a clear demonstration of the government’s political weakness, which can be explained according to the ideological attitude of others”.