preface
On July 31, Italy Prime Minister Meloni concluded a five-day visit to China.
Before leaving, she held a special press conference, and in front of many reporters, she highly praised the visit to China and changed her "name" for China.
So, what is Meloni's attitude towards China? Will she be able to improve Sino-European relations?
The Chinese side has sent a big gift
Meloni arrived in China on July 27, and she obviously had very high expectations for this visit, not only specially choosing the time node for the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Italy, but also bringing her daughter to show her trust in China.
The Chinese side also gave him a very high courtesy to this guest who came from afar, and before Meloni's special plane landed, the officials in charge of the reception, the red carpet, and the honor guard were already waiting at the airport.
In the following meeting, the top level of the Chinese side also met with Meloni in person.
Of course, the understanding between China and Italy is, after all, the focus of Meloni's visit to China, and the real focus is on the itinerary in the next few days.
As we all know, the trade relationship between China and Italy is quite close, and in the first half of this year alone, the trade volume between the two countries exceeded 255 billion yuan.
However, after Italy's withdrawal from the "One Belt, One Road" plan, after all, it still has a lot of negative effects on bilateral trade between the two countries.
Therefore, Meloni has always wanted to reshape the trade relationship between the two countries, and one of the important goals of her visit to China is to strengthen economic and trade cooperation between China and Italy.
This can be seen in her entourage.
According to reports, Meloni was accompanied by representatives of luxury brands, manufacturers, energy groups and other industries, and even representatives of military enterprises.
It is clear that Meloni is here to negotiate business with China.
Naturally, China welcomes this.
According to media reports, China and Italy have signed a three-year cooperation plan, which covers a wide range of fields, including education, medical care, science and technology.
If the plan can be successfully implemented, the previous cooperation projects between China and Italy will be further implemented, and at the same time, the two countries will open up new tracks and carry out new cooperation in more fields.
Meloni was quite satisfied with the result.
On the second day of her visit to China, she also made a special trip to attend the opening ceremony of the seventh meeting of the China-Italy Entrepreneur Committee.
And after attending the meeting, she was even more satisfied.
More than 150 Chinese and Italian entrepreneurs attended the meeting, and the two parties signed a number of cooperation documents at the meeting.
Most importantly, the Chinese side has made it clear that it will import more Italy products in the future.
It should be known that in the past many years, the total value of trade between China and Italy, the total value of commodity exports is generally greater than the total amount of imports.
Now that China has voluntarily pledged to increase its import quotas, there is no doubt that Italy will earn more foreign exchange.
Of course, China's generosity is not unconditional, and China demands that Italy provide a safe and clean business environment for Chinese companies.
In addition, the Chinese side also sent a big gift to Italy.
We all know that in recent years, new energy vehicles have become popular all over the world, but the only countries that have really made achievements in the field of new energy vehicles are China and the United States, and Italy, as a traditional automobile power, cannot see the back of China and the United States at all.
After Meloni took office, she has always wanted to promote the development of the country's new energy vehicle industry, but due to financial and technological constraints, the effect has not been good.
Therefore, she wants to cooperate with China in the field of new energy vehicles, and China naturally has no opinion on this, after all, new energy going to sea also has great benefits for China.
After receiving a positive response from the Chinese side, Meloni openly praised China's generosity when facing reporters, which shows how excited she is.
Of course, as the head of state of a major European country, it is natural that a visit to China will not only talk about "money".
Meloni changed her name to China
In fact, according to media reports, China and Italy have conducted in-depth discussions on the unstable world situation.
Coincidentally, just two days before Meloni's visit to China, the Chinese side had just done two major things.
The first thing was to receive the foreign minister of Ukraine, which is the first visit to China by a foreign minister of Ukraine since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi cordially received him, and the two sides also held a friendly meeting to discuss a peace plan to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Second, on July 25, China sent Representative Li Hui to conduct the fourth shuttle diplomacy after the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, creating conditions for Russian-Ukrainian negotiations.
Meloni spoke highly of China's efforts to promote world peace.
At the press conference, she called China "a key player in building a just peace."
In addition to the Russia-Ukraine situation and the economy, the Chinese side and Meloni also focused on China's relationship with the European Union.
Those who are concerned about China-EU relations should know that although China and the EU have always had close trade exchanges, they are also facing considerable challenges.
For example, some time ago, the European Union suddenly increased tariffs on electric vehicles produced in China, which caused a lot of changes in Sino-European trade.
In addition, there are some people in the EU who are hostile to China and have been trying to push for decoupling from China.
The highest jump was European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Von der Leyen is nominally an EU person, but anyone with a discerning eye knows that she is a nail in the United States for the EU, and that she formulates policies based on United States interests, not EU interests.
During Meloni's visit to China, for example, von der Leyen concocted a plan for a so-called "China investment review".
The plan is very aimed at China, and its purpose is to try to decouple China and Europe.
You know, the trade relationship between China and Europe is extremely close, once the two sides decouple, China and Europe will inevitably suffer huge losses, and the final profiteer, you don't need to think about it, must be the United States.
The EU countries naturally understood this, so when voting, 26 EU countries voted against it, and only Lithuania, which has long been in collusion with the United States, voted in favor.
Based on this incident, Meloni also deliberately and publicly stated during her visit to China that the EU will not choose to decouple from China, but will strengthen cooperation between the two sides.
Meloni's remarks undoubtedly reassured China-EU relations, which has a significant positive impact on China-EU trade.
Of course, we cannot fully believe Meloni's words, after all, Italy does not represent the EU with full powers.
Moreover, the EU is not a hardcore unit, and apart from Lithuania, the internal fighting between other EU countries is also serious.
For example, when the European Union proposed to increase tariffs on Chinese trams, the pro-support and opposition factions were at loggerheads.
This scattered political pattern of the EU is not conducive to the stability of trade between China and Italy, and I am afraid that the future trade between the two sides will face some challenges.
However, I believe that we can face these challenges calmly and find the most suitable path between the interests of China and Europe.