Italy rethinks its close China ties as US backs stronger break

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is getting dragged into the escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing as she tries to disentangle her country from its close relationship with China.

Meloni, the right-wing leader who came to power less than a year ago, is leaning toward pulling out of an agreement to join China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative, which has funded US$900 billion in infrastructure projects globally, according to people familiar with the government’s thinking. Italian officials raised the prospect of withdrawal in talks with Taiwan this week, Bloomberg reported.

Italy’s hawkish turn complicates Chinese President Xi Jinping’s effort to drive a wedge between European countries eager to retain economic relations with Beijing, and the US which is implementing increasingly confrontational policies. This puts Italy and the European Union in a delicate position between the two superpowers.

“Italy is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and what to do with the cooperation pact is a real diplomatic conundrum for Meloni,” Francesca Ghiretti, an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies research firm, said in an interview. “Renewing it would send a very difficult message to Washington, but not renewing it would put a strain in relations with China.”

With US-China relations deteriorating, Beijing is looking to prevent Europe from following Washington, particularly on measures like export controls of key technologies. The EU is struggling to balance a desire to engage with China on trade and investment with resisting economic coercion.

Underscoring the EU’s difficulties, a push by French President Emmanuel Macron to recruit China’s help for possible talks between Russia and Ukraine drew criticism from some allies who think such an effort is premature and fear it could undermine European unity.