Italy scents cash at end of Beijing’s ‘Silk Road’

ITALY will lay out the red carpet today for Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, as it signs up to Beijing’s multibillion pound Belt and Road Initiative, a modern-day incarnation of the ancient trade route known as the Silk Road.

The populist coalition in Rome will commit to the hugely ambitious infrastructure project, which is forging land and sea links stretching from China to other parts of Asia, Africa and Europe.

However, centuries after Venetian merchants grew rich on the silk, spices, ceramics and gold that flowed along trade routes from the Middle Kingdom, Italy is being warned that it is playing a dangerous game by cosying up to the world’s second biggest economy.

After arriving in Rome with a 200-strong delegation, Mr Xi will meet Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and prime minister, Giuseppe Conte. There is even speculation that Mr Xi will meet Pope Francis, though Beijing and the Vatican have had no diplomatic relations for more than 50 years.

Italy and China will sign commercial pacts on infrastructure, machinery and finance and although the accord is only a memorandum of understanding, allies warn that it could be a Trojan horse that presages much greater Chinese involvement in Italy’s economy and transport infrastructure, with the dangers of heavy debt and an erosion of sovereignty.

The US, which is already engaged in a trade war with Beijing, is worried that the Belt and Road Initiative is designed to extend China’s strategic and political influence and could be used to spread technology, such as 5G mobile communications networks, that could be used to spy on the West.

“[There is] no need for the Italian government to lend legitimacy to China’s infrastructure vanity project,” said a spokesman for the White House’s group of national security advisers while the European Commission has described China as a “systemic rival” and called for curbs on the activities of Chinese state-owned enterprises within the EU.

Italy will be the first G7 country to become part of the initiative when it signs up to the deal on Saturday.

Mr Conte told Italian MPS that it would bring huge economic opportunities for Italy, which is, once again, stuck in a recession.

“We will have new airports, new trade corridors, and it will certainly influence our economic growth,” he said.