‘Basta,’ premier says as she moves to prevent China’s Sinochem from appointing Pirelli’s next chief executive.

Free trade, comparative advantage, and private enterprise are all essential components of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s economic philosophy. However, in the matter of Pirelli Tires, national security is paramount.

As a symbol of Italian industry, Pirelli has few equals. Renowned across the globe, Pirelli is one of the Magic Boot’s capitalistic crown jewels. Any hint of Chinese Communist domination of this venerable giant runs contrary to Signora Meloni’s tricolore core.

Ms. Meloni said “basta” — enough — invoking her government’s “Golden Power” rule to prevent China’s Sinochem, which holds a 37 percent share of Pirelli, from appointing the 151-year-old tire-maker’s next chief executive.

Alarmed  that Beijing might wield undue influence over the company’s investments — as well as future mergers and acquisitions — Ms. Meloni maintains that the Camfin holding company’s chief executive, Marco Tronchetti Provera, holds the sole right to nominate Pirelli’s next chief executive. Though Camfin owns but 14 percent of Pirelli, Mr. Tronchetti Provera — not Xi Jinping or the Chinese Communist Party — will have the final say in naming his successor under a provision dating back to 1992.

It was Sinochem’s attempt to revise the decades-old directive that heightened tensions between Mr. Tronchetti Provera and the Chinese, raising — metaphorically and literally — a red flag in Rome.

According to the former undersecretary of the ministry of economic development, Michele Geraci, who helped engineer Italy’s participation in China’s Belt & Road Initiative, Ms. Meloni’s gambit will backfire.

However, Ms. Meloni’s strategy is purposeful not performative. Unlike President Biden, Prime Minister Meloni refrains from public pronouncements that are as ill-timed as they are unnecessary.

While Ms. Meloni is no stranger to fiery rhetoric, she is more measured in her indignation. In the Pirelli case, the Italian premier relied on a bit of Machiavellian wisdom: “The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.” 

Yet the Pirelli intervention is but one facet of Signora Meloni’s overall schema regarding the PRC. Though Italy is the only G-7 power to take part in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Rome has failed to prosper as a result of joining Beijing’s resurrected Silk Road connecting Asia and Europe.

The former primeminister, Giuseppe “Giuseppi” Conte, miscalculated when he took Italy into the BRI in 2019. In addition to deceiving Italy — and the West — regarding Wuhan’s Covid outbreak, the PRC increased its trade surplus with Italy.

Rome’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative will be renewed for another five years in March 2024 — unless either Italy or China gives a three-month notice of withdrawal.

In an interview with Il Messaggero, Prime Minister Meloni said that “Italy is the only G-7 member that signed up to the accession memorandum to the Silk Road, but it is not the European or Western country with the strongest economic relations and trade flows with China.”

Nevertheless, the Prime Minister is confident that Rome can enjoy good economic and diplomatic relations with Beijing — without membership in Belt and Road.

The handwriting is clearly on the Great Wall. Moreover, Italy is expanding its presence in the Far East by championing a “free and open” Indo-Pacific.

Ms. Meloni dispatched the Nave Francesco Morosini — a multipurpose offshore patrol vessel — to the region in April on a joint five-month mission with the navies of allied nations.

The Morosini arrived at the Japanese port of Yokosuka in June. And it will also take part in the “Komodo 23” naval exercise in the South China Sea — perhaps even traversing the Taiwan Strait.

To paraphrase William F. Buckley’s novel Marco Polo If You Can, how about “Marco Polo, if you will, Giorgia Meloni.” -RAI