Italian Boot And Chinese Belt

Trieste is seeking Chinese investment to boost container traffic at its port

More than seven centuries after Marco Polo set off from Venice on a voyage that would culminate at the court of Kublai Khan, the Italian city continues to tout itself as the westernmost point of the ancient Silk Road and China’s gateway into Europe. Now it faces some competition from Trieste, an increasingly busy port city on the northeastern edge of Italy, whose contributions to commerce and culture include popularizing coffee by importing, roasting, and shipping the beans northward, to Vienna’s cafes and beyond.

Today, Trieste is eagerly preparing to open its port to China as a European point of entry for the “Belt and Road” initiative (BRI), a massive infrastructure spending project designed to bolster sales of Chinese-made goods and services around the world. China and Italy are expected to sign a preliminary agreement in Rome during a state visit by President Xi Jinping scheduled for March 22. Italy will become the 124th nation to join up, but it will be the first in the Group of Seven, in defiance of loud warnings from the U.S.—and more quietly voiced concerns from some quarters of Europe— that BRI is first and foremost a vehicle for Beijing to expand its sphere of influence.

As part of a constellation of deals that will be signed on the sidelines during Xi’s visit, Trieste’s port plans to enter its own agreement with Belt and Road’s biggest builder, China Communications Construction Co., or CCCC, according to Zeno D’Agostino, president of the port authority. “Trieste will become Singapore or Hong Kong,” he says optimistically.