Il Giornale reports that China has been implementing a "wraparound" commercial policy by surveying important maritime ports for container traffic. Beijing aims to conquer Europe. The beginning has had with the acquisition of Piraeus in Greece, with Zeebmgge in Belgium and now aim at the Italian port of Trieste. To the north is Zeebrugge and in the east there is the 16 + 1, the commercial formula through which Beijing binds to itself 12 members of the European Union (Bulgaria, Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Macedonia, Romania , Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia) and four non-EU countries such as Albania, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro.
The Beijing Grimardello is the Cosco (China Ocean Shipping Co.), a company controlled by the Chinese government that bought the first shares of Piraeus and today has concluded the acquisition of 67 per cent of the shares of the port. From that moment Cosco, which has invested 600 million euros and has other 300 ready, has total control of the terminals from which containers, cruise ships and ferries depart. Under his direction Piraeus is developing at a dizzying pace coming to move every year 20 million passengers.
The Cosco, however, is insatiable, does not stop at Piraeus and through other subsidiaries acquires holdings in seven other European ports between Italy (Vado Ligure), Belgium (Zeebrugge, Antwerp), Spain (Valencia and Bilbao), France (Marseille) and Holland (Rotterdam) gaining control of the 10 percent of Europe's container movement. But all part from Piraeus where China finances the railway network (agreed with Hungary and Serbia in the framework of 16 + 1 and financed by the «Export Import Bank of China - which will connect Piraeus to Budapest and Belgrade.
However, Trieste would be the icing on the cake for China and Cosco because of the railway network connected to its terminals. And even more, its status as a free port that allows goods to be stopped without taxes. Thanks to these two specificities, Trieste can become the main hub between Zeebrugge, Eastern Europe and Piraeus.
The Chinese view of the attractiveness of the port of Trieste are ready to invest, therefore, up to 1 billion. Ambition that for now is hindered by the undersecretary to the presidency of the Council of Ministers Giancario Giorgetti who, in several jokes, has highlighted that the shares of control of the port of Trieste will never pass under the control of the Chinese.
Meanwhile, Piraeus lent itself to the port of the first Chinese military ships and Djibouti is becoming the first base of the Beijing Navy in Africa. And the same is happening at the ports of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, already in fact Chinese.
