The Sinophile driving Italy’s hopes of a New Silk Road deal with China
- Italian trade and investment tsar Michele Geraci aims to reach agreement with Beijing during Xi Jinping’s visit next week
- Italy could become the first G7 country to join the flagship Chinese strategy
When Xi Jinping visits Italy next week, Rome’s hopes of joining China’s global trade and infrastructure plan will rest heavily on the shoulders of a powerful Sinophile who has ignored international warnings not to put too much trust in China.
Michele Geraci, the undersecretary of state for economic development in Italy’s populist coalition government, has been tasked by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to reach a memorandum of understanding with Beijing – for Italy to take part in the “Belt and Road Initiative” – during Xi’s March 22-24 visit.
Geraci, 53, has been helping to plan Xi’s trip, part of which will cover the Sicilian port city of Palermo, Geraci’s birthplace, the minister told Italian newspaper La Stampa last week.
“I would like to convince President Xi that it is worth investing in Sicily,” said Geraci, who speaks Chinese fluently and spent the last decade in China as a part-time professor in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang and in neighbouring Shanghai.
An avowed Eurosceptic who opposes increasing the powers of the European Union, Geraci has also poured his China-friendly opinions into columns for Caixin, a leading Chinese financial magazine.
Geraci’s rise into a role that gives him the power to influence the euro zone’s third-biggest economy has been stunning, given his lack of political or diplomatic credentials.
