“Why Giuseppe Conte’s Cooperation with China Should Have Expiration Dates”

Sometimes big politics works like small everyday life: Consumers who take out a trial subscription should make sure that the discounted offer expires automatically at the end of the test phase. Often it doesn’t, it would have to be actively terminated. If you miss that, you pay for it. In this sense, the then Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was not attentive enough in 2019 when he decided on a special cooperation with the soon-to-be leading economic power in the world, the People’s Republic of China, which was initially designed for a five-year trial. It was ceremonially concluded in Rome with an aristocratic visit by the head of state and party leader Xi Jingping, not quite as omnipotent as today, but not much less important either.