The July 30 edition of the People’s Daily, the newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, might turn up the noses of Italian readers. The newspaper opens with the meeting between President Xi Jinping and his East Timorese counterpart, José Ramos-Horta, on a state visit to China on July 29. Next to it, there is a sidebar article that recounts the handshake and the face-to-face meeting between Giorgia Meloni and Xi. Ill-thinking people might cry scandal and diplomatic outrage, but the Chinese newspaper granted its coverage to the East Timorese leader because he is of equal rank with Xi as head of state, while Prime Minister Meloni was only making an official visit to the People’s Republic of China (a detail of no small importance in diplomatic protocol), her first since she entered Palazzo Chigi.

The “Spirit of the Silk Road”

In the space dedicated to the meeting between Xi and Meloni, the People’s Daily quotes the words of the Chinese leader who, in praising the friendly exchanges between the two countries, asks to “support and carry forward the spirit of the Silk Road”, which must help to “see and develop bilateral relations from a historical, strategic and long-term perspective”. How should Xi’s words be read? Beijing is pushing for Rome not to completely abandon the Silk Road and has used that expression to emphasize the historic geographical and ideological bond that still connects Italy and China today, going well beyond the infrastructure project that Xi launched in 2013.

The Chinese president obviously took advantage of the presence of the Italian prime minister – who is also the current president of the G7 – to “promote dialogue and cooperation between China and Europe” in an attempt to leverage Brussels, which has taken a tougher line against Beijing. It is clear how much the People’s Republic wants to push Italy to embrace a softer vision on Chinese trade, especially on electric cars that have ended up in the crosshairs of the European Commission with the (not yet definitive) introduction of duties. The other jab at Brussels (and Washington) came from the Chinese newspaper Global Times, which defines the ties between China and Italy as a model for other European and Western countries and to have “mutually beneficial cooperation” with the Asian giant “in a period of global uncertainty and declining US leadership”.

The Chinese press, which also emphasizes the economic plans of the Beijing leadership to revive the country’s economy, interprets Meloni’s trip as a pragmatic attempt to mend relations between Beijing and Rome after the latter’s rift over the failure to renew the memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), known in Italy as the New Silk Road. The two talked a lot about business and how to balance the trade balance (which is entirely in favor of Beijing), to overcome the impasse of the failure to renew the agreement signed in 2019 by the Conte government. Before taking office, Meloni had declared that joining the BRI, a cornerstone of Xi’s ambition to increase his country’s influence abroad, was a “grave mistake”. Since then, the Italian government has softened its tone and tried to re-establish ties with China, considered a key trading partner. The three-year action plan signed in Beijing, which is an “alternative approach to the Silk Road” (Meloni’s words), goes in this direction, even if there have been no developments on the desired opening of a Chinese electric car production plant in Italy. With the Chinese leaders “we limited ourselves to defining framework agreements – Meloni said regarding the agreement reached on electric cars -, then it is not up to us to go into the merits of the individual agreements that can be developed”. In exchange, Xi said he was ready to “welcome Italian companies that invest in China” and promised to import “more high-quality Italian products”.

Beijing Doesn’t Talk About the War in Ukraine

What is missing from the Chinese press and Beijing’s official reports, however, are references to “Russian aggression in Ukraine (which Xi prefers to call a “crisis”), to the “risks of a further worsening of the situation in the Middle East” and to the “growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific”. These are issues that, according to the note from Palazzo Chigi, were addressed by Meloni, who underlined Beijing’s role as “fundamental for peace and stability in the world”. China probably does not consider Italy a valid diplomatic and strategic interlocutor. The day after the face-to-face meeting with Xi, Meloni returned to international crises. “We were quite clear in raising the issue. I think that China has no interest at this stage in supporting Russian industrial capacity – the Prime Minister told reporters, referring to the content of the long meeting – Even if, as we know, it does not intervene directly, it is clear that this creates friction because we have written it in every possible way”. The reference is to the condemnation of the G7 and the accusation of NATO on the supply of Chinese weapons and dual-use technology to Russia.

I’ll explain to you the ambiguous (and dangerous) Chinese strategies for peace in Ukraine

After meeting with Xi, Meloni flew to Shanghai, convinced that her first official mission to China was a “success.” A success that, however, does not shine in the skies of Beijing.