Italy embraces China
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2019
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rome's decision to sign up to China's One Belt One Road initiative has proved controversial both at home and among Italy's closest allies.
Washington DC and Brussels are both sceptical of the true intent behind Beijing's programme for financing major overseas infrastructure projects, ostensibly to enhance China's trade routes. President Xi Jinping's recent invitation to Rome to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Italian government - an initiative spearheaded by the little known Italian economy minister Michele Geraci - has caused consternation.
Manuela Saragosa gets the view in Washington DC from Jonathan Hillman of think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. And the former Italian foreign affairs minister Giulio Terzi Sant'Agata explains why many of his compatriots are worried about the contents of the that memorandum.
(Picture: Italys Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte greets China's President Xi Jinping at Villa Madama in Rome; Credit: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Beehives, bricks, bicycles, other things that don't begin with bee, like the pencil or the like button. |
| 0:06.3 | A button begins with B, that's good. |
| 0:07.8 | Anyway, they're just five of the 50 things I'll be exploring in the second season of 50 things that made the modern economy. |
| 0:14.3 | Available now wherever you found this podcast. |
| 0:17.0 | And now here it is. |
| 0:20.1 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. I'm Manuela Saragossa. |
| 0:25.4 | Coming up, Italy books itself an official place on China's New Silk Road. |
| 0:30.5 | It's become the first Western economy to sign up to Beijing's massive belt and road global |
| 0:35.5 | investment drive. And some say Rome is making a mistake. |
| 0:39.7 | It's a political commitment between two entities which are enormously different. It's evident |
| 0:45.9 | that we are one-tenth of the Chinese economy, little more than one-tenth of Chinese economy. |
| 0:51.9 | It is very unbalanced. But are critics missing the point |
| 0:55.4 | about China's rising economic reach and power? |
| 0:58.9 | That's all here in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:04.8 | When China's President Xi landed in Rome last week, |
| 1:08.4 | he was given the sort of welcome, more usually reserved for royalty. |
| 1:17.1 | Cavalry, limousines, red carpets, pomp and circumstance. It all culminated in a gala dinner where the Chinese leader was |
| 1:28.8 | serenaded by the Italian opera singer Andrea Boccelli. |
| 1:41.0 | Notably absent from all the official ceremonies was perhaps the most important leader in Italy's |
| 1:46.8 | coalition government, namely the deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, who heads the right-wing |
| 1:52.3 | League or Lega party. Instead, playing host was the other Italian coalition party, the anti-establishment |
| 1:58.6 | five-star movement. A sign that even in Italy, not everyone |
... |
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