Back in 2019, lost in the Brexit noise, Italy became the first big EU nation and the first member of the G7 to sign up to China's Belt and Road initiative. China had infuriated Brussels by introducing a strategic development plan to Europe in which they had no hand; China targeted the Mediterranean states, the closest parts of the EU to ships low in the water with Chinese goods. The EU was still squabbling over the interests of the northern EU, Rotterdam and Hamburg, which had the lion's share of Chinese imports. As The Diplomat reported, the China - Italy MoU was comprehensive
... aiming at a strategic partnership covering a broad range of areas such as trade, investment, finance, transportation, logistics, infrastructure, connectivity, sustainable development, mobility and cooperation, also involving third countries. Notably, the area of telecommunications was left out of the agreement.Well, this week Europe was sharply reminded of that agreement. At a time when France and Germany banned the export of medical equipment to Italy, China rapidly arranged to airfreight millions of masks, gowns, eyeshields, hectolitres of alcohol gel and even respirators, thanking Italy for the care provided to the 300,000 Chinese expats working in northern Italy, and re-committing to the friendship between the two nations. The South China Morning Post reported on a telephone call between the nations' foreign ministers
During the phone call on Tuesday, Wang told Di Maio that China would not forget “the precious support” from Italy when “we were at the hardest moment fighting the epidemic”. “Now, we are willing to stand firmly by the side of the Italian people,” the Chinese foreign minister said.
“Although currently China itself still has great demand for medical materials, we will overcome the difficulties and offer material aid, including face masks, to Italy, and increase exports of materials and equipment to meet Italy’s urgent need,” Wang said. “If the Italian side requires it, China would also like to send medical teams to assist in combating the virus,” he said.The response of the EU to the challenge has been, at the least, confused. Whilst Richi Sunak yesterday committed £30bn to counter the effects of the virus in the UK, the EU's response has been to protect the banks and the interests of the ECB. A measly €7.5bn has been committed for all 27 EU nations, and Brussels has announced plans to co-ordinate the distribution of medical protective supplies. When it whined to EU nations that health was a national competence, it raised only anger. The EU has been for years acting, setting up organisations, sitting on committees as though it were the European Health Authority - now it's proven to be a hollow pretence.
As AE-P writes in the 'graph, Sunak and Carney have shamed the EU.
The EU’s legalistic spending machinery will limit any fiscal punch and slow the roll out of crisis measures. There are still no eurobonds, no shared budget, and no mutualised pan-eurozone deposit insurance for banks, which leaves vulnerable Italy in the worst of all worlds: deprived of sovereign economic instruments yet without EU fiscal support to compensate.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that 70pc of Germans could be infected but failed to draw the economic conclusions. She spoke of a €25bn EU crisis package - less than 0.2pc of GDP - and but proffered no fiscal emergency spending for Germany itself beyond a trivial €275m for health care. Fiscal stabilisers will have to carry the load.Italian voters will not easily forget either the actions of France and Germany, or the inaction of the EU. Nor will they forget the assistance given by China at a time when her own people are not past the crisis. I've no doubt that there will be those in Brussels who see Covid-19 as just another 'beneficial crisis' that will allow the Federasts to ratchet up control. This time it may just be a crisis too far.
| 11/03/20 | ||
| EU/EEA and the UK | Cases | Deaths |
| Italy | 10149 | 631 |
| France | 1784 | 33 |
| Spain | 1639 | 35 |
| Germany | 1296 | 2 |
| Netherlands | 382 | 4 |
| United Kingdom | 373 | 6 |
| Sweden | 326 | 0 |
| Norway | 277 | 0 |
| Belgium | 267 | 0 |
| Denmark | 264 | 0 |
| Austria | 182 | 0 |
| Greece | 90 | 0 |
| Iceland | 70 | 0 |
| Czech Republic | 63 | 0 |
| Portugal | 41 | 0 |
| Finland | 40 | 0 |
| Ireland | 35 | 0 |
| Slovenia | 31 | 0 |
| Romania | 25 | 0 |
| Poland | 22 | 0 |
| Croatia | 13 | 0 |
| Estonia | 13 | 0 |
| Hungary | 12 | 0 |
| Latvia | 8 | 0 |
| Luxembourg | 7 | 0 |
| Slovakia | 7 | 0 |
| Bulgaria | 4 | 0 |
| Malta | 4 | 0 |
| Lithuania | 3 | 0 |
| Cyprus | 2 | 0 |
| Liechtenstein | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 17430 | 711 |
We can only hope and trust that this behaviour will hasten the EU globalist concept (not its constituent shell nations) to the knackers yard.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese government are a bunch of cnuts (as with all professional politicians and dictators), but they understand one thing, which is that the human bean, no matter the colour or the religion (if any) are far more loyal to home than they are to world peace.
You can't buck biology, and speaking of Italians who were just about the first nation to experiment with modern globalism (aka fascism) through the endeavours of the journalist that we know as Mussolini, have walked into a repeat performance with their EU concept.
Something that I cannot understand, is why do we always get management who do not understand this simple brief.
The jury is still out on Blighty, the people have spoken, but we are still not sure whether management is listening.
So we come back to my belief that we need politicians that we can control, we have seen what happens when we actually do this, via the auspices of the less than self effacing Cameron and the referendum that he couldn't lose.
I know that we need much much more of this, only we need to control the mechanisms that ensure that we retain that sort of control. These people are supposed to represent OUR interests, and you cannot gainsay real democracy, through the wisdom of the crowd, after all, even an election for a representative, if you don't have that control is a waste of time mostly. Only the events that occurred during the last administration demonstrate this admirably, by the beginning of December last year, we were hanging on the words of one criminal who had surreptitiously, by disguising his true identify as a traitor to his NATION, namely BerCow.
Nigel Farage the people's politician, has this moniker in many circles, because he knows the difference between the two, and is not afraid of confronting such dangerous INDIVIDUALS.
Amazing! Not one word of this Italy - China cooperation makes it onto the Beeb, or indeed any MSM. I wonder why??
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know how many of those 631 dead in Italy were from China.
ReplyDeleteI've mentioned before that the EU elite are courtiers, in an endless dance before the Emperor to gain patronage and prestige. The serfs outside the Court don't matter, there is only the dance...
ReplyDeleteHow dare the serfs organise to make things better without the oversight of the elite! (Sarcasm). Obviously allowing the serfs to organise, broadening the franchise, and the subsidiarity of political power were steps too far. (Sarcasm again). But the rollback of these subversive ideas is the aim of 'ever greater union'. We are better off out.
@ poisonedchalice
ReplyDeleteFirst I heard of Italy's role in the Belt and Road was on Press tv and I believe Al Jazeera has commented on it as well.
Certainly sott has as well as other alt media outlets, together with their geopolitical view that's very similar to what Raedwald says.
And another, even lower on the radar is the Chinese agreement with Macedonia to construct a modern railway to connect with the eastern part of Europe.
Of even less note is they're using Cyprus as an airfreight hub, bringing in thudding great 747's, then breaking the cargo to go on aircraft to the various destinations served from Larnaca. Far cheaper than using the 747 to land, especially as some places get quite small deliveries. Best make use of direct flights every day to the Levant countries as well as Greece and Bulgaria.
It's two way, the Boeing takes stuff delivered to Larnaca.
ReplyDeleteLet us not forget the banks in all this - for it is they who will be first to receive help (again) over and above the people they continue to thieve from.
The EU's betrayals are already fairly well established in minds but their current actions will cement this and, should the details get past MSM censorship, the EU will suffer enormously for their (in)actions and supporters (yes, you JPM) of the EU will have to rework their smarmy defense to compensate - as if that was even possible.
Italy's suffering may well be down to the system being overwhelmed and, from all accounts, it doesn't take much of a crisis (ANY type of crisis) to overwhelm many cities - take even one terrorist event or coach crash as examples where victims have to be spread across a whole region to get the ICU support they need - and that's only for figures in the 10's.....
More and more this is showing up as either an engineered event or certainly one of 'useful crisis' where certain sections of society and Government will BENEFIT from the inaction and incompetence whilst those that DESERVE the repercussions get away either scot-free or even profit from it.
We live in a sick society and it isn't Covid-19 that made it sick.
I thought trade was an EU competence so how did Italy/China manage this?
ReplyDeleteDid EU (gold-plated) rules only apply to the UK?
Ah yes Dave, the first rule in the book of globalism...
ReplyDeleteThe beneficial crisis.
We need more of your money and we need it now.
Oh and one more thing...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/uk-announces-2-digital-services-tax-on-facebo/
Something that our lords and masters did not trumpet.
The wedge is typically thin at the thin end.
So you want the European Union to have a federal public health system, incorporating a fully resourced public protection agency on standby for emergencies after all?
ReplyDeleteDo make up what passes for your minds eh?
That's what they want. We don't care.
DeleteOh, and Johnson's excuse-for-a-government can't even be bothered to ask for the much-needed help from anywhere.
ReplyDeleteThey'd have no plan for what to do with it if they did either, because we don't have the people to use the kit, nor the space to accommodate the ill.
This whole, useless, US small state creed is unravelling before our very eyes.
Well done Italy. Thank you China.
“China rapidly arranged to airfreight millions of masks, gowns, eyeshields, hectolitres of alcohol gel and even respirators, thanking Italy for the care provided to the 300,000 Chinese expats working in northern Italy.”
ReplyDeleteChina has such a large population that it can easily send sufficient numbers of its people to Europe to provide excuses for involvement in European affairs.
Did not Turkey recently believe they had a right to representation in an EU country’s elections based upon the number of Turkish nationals residing in that country?
With modern communications and technology it is perfectly possible for very large groups of foreign nationals to reside in a country without the need to speak the native language or integrate and to continue with the lifestyles, behaviour, conduct, habits, customs, political orientation, and even some laws, of their home country and hence for this home country to influence if not actually control their actions.
In Milan central hospital they are reportedly no longer intubating those older than 60. I shall be taking my own length of hosepipe. The Italian numbers are reckoned to be high due to a high proportion of elderly folk. Bad news for Macron.
ReplyDeleteThe best laugh is the Boris Fanzine swallowing the budget hook line and sinker. A cunning move, spaffing a load of cash to serve two purposes, keep the economy going past the virus and provide cover for more spaffing to cover the failure of Brexit. Eventually the spaffing will have to stop, but that is a long term problem aka past next election time.
Go take a look at The Mussolini Populist Playbook on the Radix blog for a guide to our future.
Interesting up to the last sentence, where Jim became confused by the difference between democracy and dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteRepresentative democracy can be a bit confusing...
For instance apparently there is a problem for people like Jim when it comes to counting votes, so probably he prefers not to waste time.
It is so much simpler to cleave to the outpourings of dictators like the EC politburo, and er chaps like Mussolini.
"Nor will they forget the assistance given by China"
ReplyDeleteas far as i can see, italian voters are not aware of this "assistance", if it exists at all. yes, china is shipping stuff to italy, but i suspect italians are paying for it, i also suspect china is shipping stuff to anyone willing to pay. is italy a privileged customer? i doubt it very much and i dont see any sign so far.
i would rather say that italians are less than happy about the situation; italy has become a bridgehead for chinese goods and workers, the bulk of which are illegal, and the fact itself that the virus has taken such hold is because of the large amount of people travelling back and forth between north of italy and china.
italians had no say in all this, the belt and road initiative was all the work of political, industrial and financial elites. people were not involved at all, and if they were, they would have most likely rejected it. and rightly so.
the reaction of the italian government to the epidemic was nothing short of shameful. as usual, it was initially politicized to score cheap electoral points, with the conservative parties screaming that borders, schools, and public transports had to be closed (and i suspect they were right), and the lefties accusing them of racism and depicting instead the CoVid-19 as just your usual flu, and inviting people to go on like nothing happened.
drastic measures were taken too little and too late when the situation had already gone out of control.
the italian healthcare is collapsing, and that is also the reason why so many people are dying, together with the fact that only people with serious symptoms and only important people are tested...
i read around praise for the italian government reaction. this shows how much the narrative is in the hands of the corporate media, and how little it has to do with reality.
and before somebody asks, im an italian expat, and i have a lot of reliable info about the real situation.
this will be a disaster of epic proportions for italians.
"It would be interesting to know how many of those 631 dead in Italy were from China."
ReplyDeletemost likely none. chinese communities in north italy have their own hospitals, illegal of course, and some say that no chinese ever dies in north italy. he merely changes face. and body.
Boris has to be commended for telling it how it is. He's said loved ones will die and people should prepare for that. And that the best we can do at this point is to flatten the infection curve to avoid overloading the NHS.
ReplyDeleteI don't know of any other Western politician that has actually been as truthful and forthright with the population.
And last night on Question Time the government were lambasted by some lefty for following scientific advice. They really are mentally deranged.
The population of China is about a billion.
ReplyDeleteThey have put the lid on this virus at about ten thousand dead or one in a hundred thousand people.
The UK's people have been told by Johnson to expect of the order of half a million dead, or one in a hundred people.
That is a death rate a THOUSAND times higher than China's.
The Tories should be in the Hague for planned genocide.
Fuck me you're getting so desperate for attention I wouldn't be surprised if you started posting dick pics.
DeleteHalf a million is about 0.7%, more die anyway even if Coronavirus was ignored.
ReplyDeleteDP111 writes
ReplyDeleteThe scale of infections in Italy, and the associated fatalities, are out of all proportion to the rest of the EU.
There seems to be some other factor in play in Italy that is not evident.
Anon.
ReplyDeleteAs Raedwald says there are three hundred thousand Chinese in Northern Italy. "Case Zero" has never been found either.
Here's a thought.
What if the virus first in fact arose in Italy, and was taken back to China by one of her own?
I personally doubt it, but it's not impossible, and it would mean that it was circulating for far longer than first thought..
JPM demonstrates that bats can live inside socialists and apparently, thrive.
ReplyDeleteAs I say, I personally doubt it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as I write, car loads of coughing, wheezing young arts graduates are probably heading off from London, from Bristol, and from Manchester, towards the Wetherspoons of Sunderland, of Clacton, of Stoke on Trent, and of Boston!
I wonder what the figures are now.
ReplyDelete