news

Italian Prime Minister Meroni starts his China trip today

At the invitation of Premier Li Qiang, Italian Prime Minister Meroni will pay an official visit to China from July 27 to 31. This is Meroni's first visit to China since taking office, and also the first visit to China by a European leader since the election of the new President of the European Commission. It is generally expected that the main purpose of Meroni's visit is to improve trade relations with China.

At the Foreign Ministry press conference on the 25th, spokesman Mao Ning introduced the arrangements for the visit. Mao Ning said that President Xi Jinping will meet with her, and Premier Li Qiang and Chairman Zhao Leji will hold talks and meet with her respectively to exchange views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern.

Mao Ning further pointed out that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Italy. China is willing to take this visit as an opportunity to consolidate traditional friendship with Italy, carry forward the spirit of the Silk Road, enhance understanding and trust, deepen practical cooperation and cultural exchanges, promote the steady and long-term development of China-Italy and China-EU relations, and jointly make greater contributions to world peace, stability and prosperity.

Dong Yifan, associate researcher at the Institute of European Studies of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said in an interview with Zhi News that this visit is an important event for the Meloni government to demonstrate its attention to the China-Italy comprehensive strategic partnership. Dong Yifan believes that under the existing comprehensive strategic partnership framework,The Merloni government's visit aims to explore a new model for China-Italy relations at the bilateral level, boost Italy's economic recovery and growth through bilateral cooperation with China, and seek win-win results at the political and economic levels.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press Conference

Will this visit have a turning point impact on the two countries?

It is worth noting that Merloni is the first female prime minister of Italy and is regarded as the leader of the far-right government. Her visit to China has been described as a balancing trip aimed at maintaining national economic interests while considering international relations. Italian Prime Minister Merloni has attracted attention for her image as a hardliner on China policy. The outside world believes that she is more consistent with the European Commission led by von der Leyen on EU foreign policy. Italy may not be able to play a role in reversing the friction in China-EU economic and trade relations.

Dong Yifan believes that the Meroni government is highly consistent with the EU's line in many aspects, especially in economic and trade policies. This consistency is mainly rooted in Italy's understanding of the challenges it faces in globalization and global industrial competition. In his view, Italy believes that it is at a disadvantage in global industrial competition. This feeling is not only reflected in the political circle, but also widely exists in the people's way of thinking.

Dong Yifan further analyzed that Prime Minister Meroni's visit to China is a manifestation of his foreign policy's actual shift to pragmatism. Meroni's goal is to explore a new model between Italy and China at the bilateral level and further enhance the strategic partnership between the two sides, including strengthening bilateral cooperation in politics and economy, and providing impetus for the revitalization of the Italian economy by strengthening exchanges with China.

In addition, Dong Yifan pointed out thatThe Italian government needs to reassess and recognize the mutual benefit of China-EU relations. Based on this recognition, Italy should better understand that relying solely on protectionist measures cannot effectively solve its economic difficulties or support its economic development. Therefore, as an important member of the EU, Italy has the responsibility to play a more constructive role within the EU and promote the EU to adopt a more balanced strategy to deal with the increasingly complex economic, trade and industrial competition relationship with China.

Italian Prime Minister Meroni

Italian Minister: Hope to establish a "long-term partnership" with China

According to the Italian Industrialists' Federation, Italy's inflation has decreased, household confidence has recovered, the service industry has grown, and industry has stabilized since the beginning of this year. However, due to unfavorable factors such as rising oil prices, delayed interest rate cuts, and a continued decline in corporate credit, Italy's economy is still in a recovery period.

Earlier this month, Made in Italy Minister Adolfo Urso visited China, where he met with politicians and business leaders, including executives from electric car makers Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., Zhongcheng Industrial Group Co., Ltd. and Weichai Group.

"China is an indispensable market for those who want to do business globally," Urso said. "We can develop industrial partnerships, especially in green technology, electric vehicles and pharmaceuticals, which I think will be beneficial to Europe." He added that he was "satisfied" with his trip to China, which aimed to "make significant progress in industrial partnership cooperation."

Dong Yifan believes that Urso's visit aims to open up more opportunities for Italian manufacturing and explore new innovation models through cooperation with Chinese companies, especially in the field of traditional manufacturing. By deepening industrial chain cooperation with China, it will not only promote employment growth in Italy, but also help the two countries achieve mutual benefit and win-win results in economy.

Made in Italy Minister Urso

Along with Meroni's visit, a large number of Italian companies have also come to China to participate in the upcoming Italy-China Business Forum in Beijing. According to Reuters, companies including tire manufacturer Pirelli, energy giant Eni, aerospace and defense company Leonardo, wine producers and several luxury fashion brands such as Dolce & Gabbana will participate in the forum. The report said that the business forum has a special discussion on the automotive industry. The Italian government is holding talks with Chinese automakers to attract large automakers to enter the country's market and increase domestic car production.

Dong Yifan analyzed thatItaly is actually showing its industrial advantages in electric vehicles from the side, intending to find more economic opportunities in the global green transformation trend by strengthening cooperation with China.By cooperating with China, Italian companies can not only enhance the scale and technology of their own automobile industry, but also effectively utilize China's huge market potential and inject new vitality into their own economic growth.

The structural upgrade of China and Italy is the general trend

In recent years, China-Italy economic and trade cooperation has maintained a good development momentum overall, and there is broad space for bilateral cooperation. Italy has a developed real economy and is the second largest manufacturing power in the EU after Germany. Its main industries include automobile manufacturing. At present, Italy is China's fourth largest trading partner in the EU, and China is Italy's primary trading partner in Asia. However, against the backdrop of rising trade protectionism and competition among major powers, China-Italy cooperation is inevitably disturbed. The European Commission plans to impose temporary anti-subsidy duties on electric vehicles imported from China from July 4, casting a shadow on China-EU cooperation.

Dong Yifan pointed out that the EU's economic and trade policies are mainly driven by the European Commission, so the influence of member states on policies is relatively limited. Even if countries like Germany are opposed to increasing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, in fact, the decision of the European Commission is difficult to be changed by a single member state.

Despite the challenges, the economic and trade relations between China and Italy are still undergoing structural upgrading, which is an irreversible trend.Dong Yifan believes that with the increase in trade volume and the deepening of cooperation between the two sides, the complementary economic advantages of China and Italy are becoming more and more obvious in the global wave of digitalization and green transformation. Therefore, promoting capacity cooperation is not only the need of both sides, but also an inevitable choice for future development.

Dong Yifan said: "Both Italy and China need to find new sources of economic power in the current international environment and seek common interests and development in new growth points of the global economy through deepening cooperation. This cooperation is not limited to traditional consumer goods manufacturing, but also includes high-tech fields and green technologies, which are the focus of current and future global economic cooperation."

Author: Tian Xin, Beijing-based reporter for Shenzhen TV News