Italy Looking to Leave China’s ‘Belt and Road’ Global Domination Scheme

The Italian government of Giorgia Meloni is reportedly preparing to leave Communist China’s Belt and Road global domination scheme within the coming months.

In 2019, under the stewardship of then-technocratic Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Italy became the first, and so far only, G7 nation to sign up to Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, which Beijing uses to ensnare nations throughout the world under its boot through debt trap diplomacy tactics.

Now the populist-minded government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni faces a decision on Italy’s continued participation in the Chinese scheme, with the country’s membership set to automatically renew itself in March of next year unless Rome decides to pull out before then.

According to a report from Bloomberg, during a meeting with U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy in the Italian capital last week, Meloni relayed that although no final decision has been made, her government is intent on exiting the Belt and Road Initiative by the end of the year.

In a tacit confirmation of the reports on the reports following a visit with Czech President Petr Pavel in Prague on Wednesday, Meloni did not deny that such plans were in the works but reiterated that a final decision has yet to be agreed to.

“[It] is a decision that we have not yet taken, it is an open debate in which I believe that the actors to be involved should be many and at various levels, including Parliament,” the Italian PM told reporters according to the Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper.

“There are still several months to make this decision, which is a delicate decision. In the past, I did not share the choice made by the Conte government but today it must be handled very carefully because it is a situation that affects many...

I have to give the ChiComs credit... Belt & Road is a diabolically brilliant scheme. Take China’s enormous trade surplus and loan it out to other countries to build infrastructure mostly using Chinese building materials and equipment, and then exploit the debt as leverage to push around the borrowing countries politically. It’s a win-win-win for a China.

Italy says it's seeking a way out of China's sprawling Belt and Road initiative.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government says joining the infrastructure program four years ago under a previous government had done little to boost Italian exports, while Chinese exports to Italy had soared. Rome is the only major Western power to join Belt and Road. Critics say it's a tool for China to spread its geopolitical and economic influence.
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Italy's defence minister has lashed out at his own country for joining China's BRI. Guido Crosetto said that Italy made an "improvised and atrocious" decision when it joined China's Belt and Road Initiative four years ago. The NATO Nation had joined China's infrastructure projects scheme under the Giuseppe Conte government. Italy is the only Western nation that is part of the BRI. Watch this video for more details.

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