Italian and European industrial policy must aim at safeguarding both private interests and national security. Foreign investment in China, including Italian investment, is increasingly "under the control" of the Chinese Communist Party and intelligence. The art of Win Win has become a clever form of extortion. To defend oneself it is necessary to place industrial policy under the umbrella of national security
di Nicola Iuvinale
For several years my brother Gabriele and I have been studying Xi Jinping's China, so much so that we have written an essay that will be published in January 2023.
However, the further we went on writing the book, the more we reflected on one aspect: what has become of Beijing's Win Win policy?
What negative influence has it had and does it have on foreign investments in China?
The Win Win is a representation of China's and Xi Jinping's politics tout court. Basically, if we conclude an agreement we both have to earn. So far, nothing new.
However, we forget that we are dealing with a totalitarian system that has set out to rewrite the rules of the post WWII world order. That, after the 20th CPC Congress, which ended in November this year, Xi Jinping gave the order to "prepare for war", which was followed by a series of political, executive, regulatory and military implementation acts.
We thought about how the Win Win policy, over the last few years, has degraded to a clever "form of extortion" perpetrated by the CCP especially to the detriment of foreign companies investing in China.
The purpose is clear: to acquire western technology illegally, quickly and for free and beyond.
The assumptions are these: if you want to access the huge Chinese market, if you want to produce in China by polluting and using cheap labor (if not slaves in Xinjiang) you have to sell, in return, part of the technology you have developed in the West.
This was the objective representation of the initial Win Win method.
Nonetheless, with the growth of deglobalization and reshoring, the method has transformed, it has become "criminal".
Today, members of the PCC, of intelligence who guide decision-making processes also for party purposes, must necessarily sit on the CDAs of foreign companies as well.
Not only; the new banking social credit, i.e. obtaining a loan from a Chinese bank, will take place on the "political credit" that that company and the owner will have accrued; basically the more you submit to the Communist Party of China the more you will have the doors open, you will have no problems.
Western trade associations know little or are reluctant to talk about it; the same entrepreneurs concerned do not speak for fear of retaliation from Beijing.
Well, this thing during writing ′′ disturbed ′′ us more and more.
We asked ourselves: but with the support for foreign investments in China by the Italian state or by the EU, are private interests and those of national security protected? Our answer was and is: NO!
No, because there is total ignorance of the problem. In the United States a little less, but in Italy and in the EU the matter is totally gloomy, also obscured by the "illegal" action of the Chinese Communist Party (PCC).
We define the CCP as a criminal organization because it uses the same conduct as the "mafia", a term that indicates a type of criminal organization governed by violence and silence. In the broad meaning of the term, it means any secretive and long-lasting organization of criminals who enforce their will by illegal and violent means, often by charging a fee for a false protection, called a "pizzo", to achieve interests for private purposes and illegal enrichment, even to the detriment of public interests.
Here, Xi Jinping's China has reached this criminal level and will worsen even more with the "preparation for war".
If an entrepreneur, a citizen were blackmailed by the CCP, what could the Party ask the Party to do for them secretly?
As in the mafias, silence is often fear and a form of protection.
Let us ask ourselves: what is the level of compromise in Italy, in Europe, both in companies and in partnerships with China (joint research, universities, etc.)?
To answer the question, in-depth expertise on the part of politics, of the security services is required; a collaboration must be implemented between intelligence and open source intelligence and specific think tanks as well as creating, as the CIA has already done, a special section dedicated exclusively to China.
In a word: national security.