F-35, 5G, Huawei, Bri and more. All the reasons for Pompeo’s visit to Italy and the US hope for the Vatican not to be too pro-China. The theses of Carlo Pelanda, analyst, essayist and professor of economic geopolitics
Since last Tuesday on Italian soil, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been present. After meeting with President Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and his counterpart Luigi Di Maio, the head of US diplomacy will go to the Vatican and, as a final step, the Italian-American Pompeo will visit the land of his ancestors , Abruzzo.
On the explicit and hidden objectives of Pompeo’s trip to Italy, Start Magazine heard the opinion of Carlo Pelanda, analyst, essayist and professor of economic geopolitics. Who, as always without mincing words or circumlocutions, first of all clarifies the background in which the passage of the Secretary of State is inserted: the ongoing clash between the stars and stripes superpower and its Chinese rival.
Both the interlocutions with the Italian government and those with the Holy See must be read in the context of the US effort to bend or at least tame the Chinese opponent. An imperial effort that requires, if not the active collaboration of our country and the Vatican, at least more balanced and, therefore, less blatantly pro-Chinese attitudes.
Pompeo, among other things, has in his hands a powerful weapon with which to intimidate at least our executive – with the Pope, of course, the question arises in another way – and convince him to stop messing with Beijing and joking with the fire of security. transatlantic making room for Huawei’s technology in the ecosystem of national telecommunications: it is the duties on our goods on which the WTO has just pronounced favorably. So, prof. Pelanda, what Pompeo came to do in Italy
I have two preliminary remarks. The first is that the real visit for Pompey is the one to the Vatican. That in Italy is just a courtesy visit, which happens incidentally while a new government is formed in Rome. The second observation refers to the theme of the day, namely the duties that America will be able to introduce on European goods after the ruling of the WTO. What we have to ask ourselves at this point is why America is letting us know that there will be duties on Italian goods. You answer us.
The Americans are making us understand that they are tired of seeing us haggling about issues like 5G or Venezuela. That’s the point, everything else is crap. The question, therefore, is that if the Americans are not reassured on the issues that they care about, starting with 5G, then poor Italy – which has nothing to do with the Airbus affair – will be penalized with duties as if more than the French and the Germans. Pompey, then, has come here to give us, as it were, a nice reminder.
The memo does not come from Pompeo: it has already arrived for some time by private means. Pompeo simply, with the necessary diplomatic smile, is basically asking Italy to confirm some things, such as the commitment on the F-35s, and then to produce acts of loyalty. Loyalty
Explain yourself better.
The problem is that Italy has seen fit to sign a treaty with the Chinese just a few months ago. It is a move that only inexperienced people like our prime minister could do. If these gentlemen thought they could get away with it, they were very wrong. At this point we are worried, Professor, because one of Pompeo’s interlocutors in this Roman visit is that Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio who pushed so hard for the signing of the Memorandum with China on the Silk Road. The same minister, however, who, as soon as he got the new post at the Farnesina, promoted the ambassador to China Ettore Sequi to a top position in the ministry. Things are going badly for us
They look bad because we are producers of grana and wine. The question, I repeat, is very simple: Americans are no longer willing to tolerate certain circle-bottom behaviors of our country, which with one hand puts the golden power on 5G and with the other accepts two billion euros of investments from Huawei in Milan. . The US is making it clear to us that if we want to behave in this way, we are completely free, but then we will not have to complain if the tariffs on the grain are doubled. I shouldn’t say this, but they’re treating us like idiots. In any case, I repeat what I said at the beginning, which is that the real political point of Pompey’s trip is the visit to the Pope .
To maintain a position of pressure on China, America needs the Vatican to remain neutral. And like the question of Italy: US intelligence knows very well that Rome has taken a pro-Chinese position partly because we have people who are not too intelligent, partly because there are people on the payroll of the Chinese, and a little – but I should say above all – because the Vatican has greatly pushed Italy to have a convergent attitude with China and then to have in exchange a series of concessions from China itself. Here, then, is that America is now asking the Vatican not for a change of position, but for neutrality. According to you, the Holy See is in a position to ensure this neutrality
The Vatican is very divided on this question, also because there is a rebellion of Catholics in China over the agreement last year between the Holy See and China on the appointment of bishops. Conversely, there is a very strong pro-Chinese current, which first of all includes the Jesuits. Just the day before yesterday, however, China, on the occasion of the parade organized for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, flexed its muscles, exhibiting its entire mighty arsenal, including the supersonic intercontinental ballistic missile that can launch a dozen atomic warheads anywhere on American territory. It’s not that this tough confrontation between superpowers is spiraling out of control
The Beijing demonstration was copied from Hitler’s. On the stage, however, it was beautiful, and in fact it had been prepared for months. Incidentally, we have to ask ourselves if the compliments that Trump paid to Xi Jinping were sincere, or were they taken for a ride. Because what the Chinese showed was metalwork. Americans on war technology are at least fifteen years ahead. In terms of re-election, Trump agrees more to an agreement with China or to continue this offensive by trying to humiliate his opponent as much as possible
If Trump sees a chance at a diplomatic victory, he will pursue it. This, however, is the very clever suggestion that Pompeo gave to Trump, against the advice of John Bolton who, as we know, has just been fired from the White House. But if Trump feels he can’t do it, then he will choose a war president mode for his electoral campaign. Therefore, the register of the total clash with the evil empire will be adopted, the one that kills students, that has concentration camps, that tramples all freedoms, that steals technologies, that controls every single individual through mobile phones. And a perfect enemy, China. In the second hypothesis, what other anti-Chinese moves should we expect from the US
First of all, the veto on American investments in China and the ouster of Chinese companies from the New York Stock Exchange. There will also be political and military actions aimed at laying siege to China, with interventions made in concert with the nations closest to China such as Vietnam. Moreover, this strategy has already begun with the invitation made to Putin to rejoin the G8. In nineteenth-century geopolitics, this, by the way, was normalcy.
