It was this year’s aborted takeover of an obscure Italian company with little more than 50 employees that illustrated just how far one of China’s biggest diplomatic successes in Europe had unravelled.
In 2019, Rome stunned its US and European allies when Italy’s then populist coalition government became the first G7 member to sign up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Signed during a state visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping, the agreement propelled Italy to the frontline of Beijing’s battle for global power and influence.
But then, two years later, Italy’s newly appointed prime minister Mario Draghi quietly signed a decree that symbolically ended China’s Italian courtship and contained Beijing’s beachhead in western Europe.
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