Italy ditched China — Biden should help more countries do the same
Washington Examiner
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is proving herself a better American ally than her recent predecessors and many other European leaders.
She announced this week that Italy would withdraw from China‘s Belt and Road Initiative. Italy has not received anywhere near the investments and reciprocal export market opportunities that China promised. The Philippines is also leaving the initiative after China similarly failed to deliver on its investment promises.
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There are three lessons worth learning from this. First, never take communist China’s word at face value. Second, the Belt and Road Initiative is a lump of coal in fancy wrapping. Third, the United States can peel nations away from it and reduce China’s influence.
The initiative is the linchpin of Xi Jinping’s plan to make the world dependent on Chinese supply chains. But the countries wooed by what seems to be an offer of generous investments find themselves picking up the pieces later. Officials in states participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, at least those whom China hasn’t bribed, tell a familiar tale of corruption, poorly constructed projects — more than one has collapsed — and heavy debt obligations to Beijing.
These are not accidental. Beijing uses financial levers to extract political fealty. If a country is in debt to China, it is expected to obey Beijing at the U.N. and on matters such as Taiwan or Hong Kong. If not, the debt collector will come calling. As many countries are now finding out, the debt collector ultimately comes calling anyway.
Meloni’s example is cause for optimism and it could be an impetus for the U.S. to encourage other nations to take the same step and free themselves from Chinese shackles. The time is ripe as China’s systemic economic difficulties mean Beijing cannot keep investment flowing. As more nations such as Sri Lanka are forced to surrender keystone national infrastructure projects, their people are souring on China.
The officials running the Belt and Road Initiative are not acting with economics in mind. They are servants for Xi’s hegemonic global political agenda. It means they dilute their obligations to partner nations to maximize Xi’s political interests. They find themselves subject to absurd and irresistible Chinese encroachments on management and national sovereignty. In Pakistan, for example, where the political class has been bribed to let their nation become a colony of China, the public has been left with crumbling infrastructure and declining economic prospects. Chinese overseers abound, but economic opportunities are fleeting.
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The U.S. cannot simply push back by emphasizing the Belt and Road Initiative’s weaknesses. Additional U.S. investments are necessary. America must support long-term economic development under the rule of law. Bolstered economic engagement with the U.S. should be a priority. Congress must move to cut red tape entangling American investors keen on projects that do not threaten national security. American embassies in nations within the initiative should offer flights and accommodation to visiting American executives who could bring investment. Where necessary, the U.S. should target sanctions on businesses in allied nations that engage with China to the detriment of U.S. interests, especially in high tech. Austria, Turkey, and Israel need to be disciplined on this.
Meloni has struck a blow for Italian sovereignty and the U.S.-led democratic international order. The post-1945 American guaranteed order, built on free markets and the democratic rule of law, brings real prosperity and China’s crony Belt and Road Initiative does not. The more that nations realize this, the better. Biden and Congress should make sure the world understands this.