Did they finally realise what a bad idea it was to completely rely on Asia for all manufacturing? About time!
Good.
Wise.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration notified Beijing that it would cease participating in the BRI ahead of a deadline at the year’s end.
Launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the BRI aims to invest an estimated $1tn (£794bn; 925bn euros) across Asia and Europe.
Washington says China’s plans involve unsustainably large projects countries are unable to finance, giving Beijing leverage for its own aims.
Since coming to office last year, Ms Meloni has sought to lead a more pro-Western and pro-Nato foreign policy than her predecessors.
Ms Meloni’s move comes ahead of a summit between EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Mr Xi on Thursday.
During the meeting, Mrs von der Leyen is expected to warn the Chinese president to curb the supply of cheap goods including solar panels and electric cars to the EU.
The original article contains 397 words, the summary contains 139 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I’ve heard about the “belt and road initiative” a few times, but I don’t know exactly what it is. Does anyone have a link to a good summary?
It is impossible to give a brief summary, that allows for an adequate asessment. Just the Reactions and criticism section wikipedia is about a ten minutes read.
Very broadly it is a gigantic infrastructure investment project by China, with the goal to strengthen and industrialize along certain trade routes through central asia and east africa connectinc China and Europe.
It could bring strong economic development especially for the central asian and african countries along the route but also further dependance on China. A particular point of criticism is the financing through China, where potentially entrapping debts for the countries are insured through access to natural ressources and the infrastructure itself. At worst a country could build a railway line or other infrastructure that ends up being owned and operated by China, employing chinese workers. On the other hand the criticism from the west needs to be also put into context of who gets to exert geopolitical control in areas like the middle east. The countries there could prefer chinese over US influence as US influence brought destabilisation and war.
Others summarised below, I just add that in chinese it’s 一带一路, terms broader than “belt” or “road” - 路 translates better as way as it can also cover sea-ways, railways etc. , 带 can also mean carry or zone, etc… So, it implies cooperation on infrastructure projects, but was not a great choice of name for global translation.
I support developing overland transport rather than flying, for climate reasons, however it’s obviously also about geopolitical deals - otherwise why would Italy be on the way from China to anywhere?