Since becoming the first country of the G7 nations to sign onto China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2019, Italy has seen the communist nation infiltrate its mainstream media, including Italy’s news wire service, a national business newspaper, and a tabloid owned by the family of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
“Wherever the readers are, wherever the viewers are, that is where propaganda reports must extend their tentacles.” — Xi Jinping, February 2016
Ahead of a state visit from Chinese dictator Xi Jinping in 2019, the head of the State Council Information Office (China’s foreign propaganda department) Jiang Jianguo told a group of top Italian media figures that the signing of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – China’s plan for world economic dominance – would bring with it “new opportunities for media exchanges and pragmatic co-operation between China and Italy.”