Italy is once again ambiguous about China and gives in to Beijing’s flattery

As regards relations with the increasingly authoritarian People’s Republic of China, Italian politics has plunged back into a limbo, halfway between ambiguity, superficiality and scattered order. If the tightrope strategy with Beijing seems to be, for the moment, prevalent in Brussels, in Italy the impression is that of a rather alarming confusion, a minimization of the problem, above all in light of the two crucial appointments of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni which will have China at the center: the European Council which begins today and Joe Biden’s trip to Washington in July. Yesterday, during communications to the Chamber, Meloni dedicated a short passage to the matter. He said that we must not be dependent on China but that on a geopolitical level the country is “an essential interlocutor”: “For these reasons”, said Meloni, “we intend to pursue a relationship with China which, far from being hostile, wants but be more balanced”. Yes, but how?