As Chinese President Xi Jinping kicks off his European tour, China has plenty to celebrate: On Friday, Italy is expected to become the first G-7 nation to join the Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has secured a foothold rolling out 5G networks across the continent. And Chinese firms have successfully taken over European businesses in key sectors.
China’s growing reach in Europe comes in spite of well-grounded warnings from Washington. Trump’s National Security Council has warned Italy against joining the Belt and Road Initiative. The Trump administration has pushed back against Huawei, characterizing the company’s networks as little better than a direct feed of information to Beijing, and raised concerns about China’s ambitions for technical dominance with stolen technology.
Although those concerns might seem abstract and far from concrete U.S. interests, they’re not. The U.S. and European economies are deeply connected, and the U.S. counts European countries and NATO members like Italy as key allies. That means that China’s influence over telecommunications networks, increased financial ties and likely influence over governments, and power in key sectors raise plenty of concerns about the ability and political willingness of allies to counter China’s aggressive advances in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere.
For the U.S., Italy’s deal with Beijing to join the Belt and Road Initiative is especially galling. As the U.S. National Security Council warned, “Endorsing BRI lends legitimacy to China’s predatory approach to investment.” That worry is fueled by other Belt and Road projects that have done little but trap countries in debt, leave them beholden to Beijing and, in some cases, force handovers of key assets.
Worse, Italy made the decision to partner with China without first consulting its allies or organizations such as the the European Union and NATO. Not only does that violate the expected diplomatic process, but it also means that Italy’s unvetted memoranda of understanding with China could trap it into agreements with consequences for the connected networks, like the integrated economy of the EU or strategic NATO defense plans.
It isn’t Trump’s fault that Italy has taken this measure. If anything, Italy’s populist government is more fond of Trump than it is of the EU. But it goes to show that the U.S. cannot take for granted relationships with European allies. Trump won’t be helping matters for the future if he keeps bludgeoning European countries over NATO spending, belittling their leaders, initiating trade disputes, and threatening to pull military collaboration. They have another option in China, and the U.S. cannot afford to lose influence.
