According to the Global Times, Italy Prime Minister Meloni ended her visit to China on July 31, her first visit to China since her election victory in 2022. He is also the first EU member state leader to visit China since the EU went through the general election. During Meloni's five-day visit, she defined Sino-Italian relations as possible and rebalancing them in the right direction, and said she was very satisfied with the outcome of the visit.
Italy joined the Belt and Road Initiative in 2019 and played an exemplary role in the connection and extension of the southern route of the Belt and Road at that time. In 2023 Italy under pressure from the G7 represented by United States, it did not choose to renew the "Belt and Road" agreement after it expired. This incident has had an impact on Sino-Italian relations, and one of the main purposes of Meloni's visit to China is to mend it and form a new cooperation plan between China and Italy.
One of the major outcomes of his visit was the signing of a three-year action plan for 2024-2027 between China and Italy. This planning timeline is in line with Meloni's own tenure and underscores the pragmatic nature of the plan, which focuses on electric vehicles and new energy cooperation. The focus is to attract Chinese enterprises to invest and set up factories in Italy, and in the case of the EU's high tariff barriers against China, Italy, as a core member of the EU, is equivalent to opening a back door for Chinese enterprises on EU barriers. This style of behavior, which values practical interests over ideology, is indicative of Meloni's right-wing views.
Meloni's political views are also quite consistent with Orban in Hungary, and the proximity of Meloni, Orban and France's right-wing forces has constituted a major representative of the changes in the political situation in the EU. Meloni's party also remained stable in the recent European Parliament re-election. Compared with the depression of Macron and Scholz, Meloni has a more stable political position.
A relatively solid political foundation will increase the insurance for the Italian side to implement the Sino-Italian cooperation plan. For Meloni's visit to China, a number of Italian media gave positive comments. Meloni's own assessment of the China-Italy cooperation plan document for 2024-2027 said that the document opens a new stage in the relations between the two countries, a period of full implementation of the plans of the two sides. In an interview with European media, the president of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of Italy, who accompanied Meloni to China, pointed out that in the absence of political guarantees, Chinese companies lack the willingness to invest in Europe, even if they are driven by economic interests.
The focus of the new form of cooperation between China and Italy is to introduce Chinese new energy vehicles to Europe, and Italy car companies should be prepared for this. Italian media "Radio Radio" praised Meloni's visit, pointed out that Italy should be open to the world, convinced that the signing of relevant cooperation documents is the first step of Italy's opening up to China, and looks forward to more opening steps in the future.
The Italian media "Formiche" recalled Meloni's visit and said that the visit reflected the trend of the times of emphasizing practical interests over ideology. In the medium to long term, economic ties with China are more priority than economic ties within the EU and United States. The visit helped Italy restore relations with its second-largest economy, and the itinerary was pragmatic rather than didactic. China and Italy have close economic ties, Italy ranks fourth in China's cooperation with EU countries, and China is Italy's second largest non-EU economic and trade partner outside United States, with the scale of China-Italy economic and trade exceeding more than 70 billion US dollars year after year. According to the data, more than 1,600 Italian companies operate in China, with a cumulative direct investment of about 15 billion euros in China. Meloni's visit is of great significance to expand Italian companies' exports to the Chinese market, and at the same time to introduce advanced production capacity such as Chinese electric vehicles. The pragmatic character highlighted during his visit is rare in today's Sino-US and China-EU trade relations.
At present, around Hungary, Serbia, Turkey and other countries, Chinese enterprises have a variety of solutions to open the European market. The mutual opening up of Italy and China, a major EU country, is a major benefit to China-EU cooperation.