UK Negotiator HUMILIATES EU’s Michel Barnier On Twitter
Reply
German Intelligence: China’s Xi Asked the WHO to Cover Up Coronavirus
If you’ve lost a loved one to coronavirus, if you’re suffering from it yourself, or you’ve lost a job to this virus, you have China to thank for getting the World Health Organization to delay the world’s response.
Taiwan News reports German intelligence has determined the awful truth.
During a conversation on Jan. 21, (China’s communist dictator) Xi reportedly asked (WHO Director-General) Tedros not to announce that the virus could be transmitted between humans and to delay any declaration of a coronavirus pandemic.
It took until the end of January before the WHO declared that the coronavirus outbreak needed to receive international attention. Because of China’s delay, the world wasted four to six weeks it could have used better to counter the virus from spreading, the BND concluded.
There’s more in the brief story at the link.
Four to six weeks of delay allowed the virus to spread worldwide. The superspreader event at the European soccer game in Italy in February falls into that window. That pushed the outbreak into both Spain and Italy. The outbreak in New York also falls into that window. The world’s economy is on the brink of collapse because of communist China’s behavior.
The WHO did not have to comply with Xi’s request. Why did it? Tedros must be hauled in and questioned.
Der Spiegel supports Turkish propaganda against Greece, but there are major ‘holes’ in their narrative
“The Killing of a Migrant at the Greek-Turkish Border.” This was the title of Germany’s Der Spiegel article that had many ‘holes’ in its narrative, despite the insistence by one of its authors, Giorgos Christidis, that there is “little doubt he was killed by a Greek bullet.”
Little doubt? I would say that there is a big doubt.
So what is the claim?
On March 4 at the peak of Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s attempt to asymmetrically invade Greece with illegal immigrants, Muhammad Gulzar, a Pakistani who had previously lived in Greece and was told by his boss Nikolaos Tzokanis to not re-enter illegally, was shot and killed at Evros on the Greek-Turkish border. Der Spiegel claims the “evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the bullet came from a Greek firearm.”
So what is their evidence? Testimonials from immigrants from the Turkish side of the border and extremely blurry photos of Greek soldiers holding guns.
This is what Der Spiegel, in partnership with Light House Reports, Forenseic Architecture, and Bellingcat, which billionaire open borders advocate George Soros partially funds via the Open Society Foundation, could muster for “evidence.”
They used Turkish state-funded TRT World as part of their evidence. How could we forget that TRT World were already exposed for fake news and their claims debunked during the migrant crisis in February and March. This is the very same TRT World who published old photos from November 2019 and reported they were from March; released videos of illegal migrants laughing when TRT World reporter Semir Sejfovic pretended to be shot at by Greek police; and, who claimed illegal immigrants were stripped by Greek authorities, which later photos proved was a lie.
We remind our readers that Turkey is one of the lowest ranked countries for media freedoms in the world, is the second most susceptible country surveyed in Europe and the surrounding region to fake news, has the most journalists jailed in the whole world, and 90% of media is government controlled. But these facts went beyond the German media agency.
Der Spiegel uses testimonies from illegal immigrants, but even this must be questioned for an agenda.
For example, some illegal immigrants do not hide their disdain for Greece. One example is Ali Muhammad from Afghanistan, who proudly boasted “We love Turkey. We do not like Greece at all,” despite trying to enter Greece.
Let’s not forget that in the 1990’s, the then president of Turkey, Turgut Özal provocatively said: “We do not need to make war with Greece. We just need to send them a few million immigrants and finish with them.”
Some illegal immigrants did not know they were being used by Erdoğan to pressurise Greece. Just a day before the Der Spiegel article, The Guardian spoke with other migrants trying to enter Greece illegally. Rima, a 45-year-old Syrian, said that she “understood we were being used” by Turkey the moment she saw migrants were refused entry into Greece.
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, an MP from the People’s Democratic Party and a member of the Human Rights Commission in Turkey, told the Guardian that refugees at Pazarkule had been used as political pawns.
However it must be kept in mind that while some migrants did not know they were political pawns, others were actively participating and were caught engaging in anti-Greek hoaxes with Semir Sejfovic and TRT World. Therefore the validity of testimonies collected by Der Spiegel, needs to be scrutinised since fake news has been well documented by TRT World and from the migrants.
Let’s move to the next issue.
Der Speigel says images from Greek television station Skai TV, show Greek soldiers near where Gulzar was shot and killed carrying an FN Minimi, M4 and/or M16 semi-automatic weapons, which fire 5.56-millimetre caliber bullets. The German news agency claims that 5.56-millimetre bullets were found inside Gulzar’s body.
The proof that Greek soldiers were carrying 5.56-millimetre bullet weapons? Extremely grainy and pixelated footage. Let’s examine the first one.
You can barely make out that this might be an M4 or M16 Rifle with 5.56-millimetre caliber.
Did Der Spiegel not consider that the rifle being held by the Greek soldier in their “evidence” is most likely a Heckler & Koch G3?
It is more probable that the soldier they took a screen grab of, is carrying the G3 – why?
Greek infantry were the overwhelming majority of Greek Army forces at the Evros border, and as the Greek Army website shows, the infantry do not use 5.56-millimetre caliber M4’s or M16’s, but use the 7.62-millimetre caliber G3 that is locally produced in Greece.
In fact, it is the main weapon used by the Greek Army.
The second screen grab that Der Spiegel uses is of a soldier supposedly holding an FN Minimi, which they had to acknowledge could also be a 7.62-millimetre caliber.
In addition, the gun could also be an FN MAG, an extremely similar looking gun to the FN Minimi, that is 7.62-millimetre caliber and also used by the Greek military.
Der Spiegel claimed that an M16 was held by the soldier in the screen grab based off an extremely blurry image, and did not consider that it is likely the Greek infantry standard Heckler & Koch G3 that is locally produced, was in fact being held.
They also claimed, again from an extremely blurry image, that a Greek soldier was holding an FN Minimi, which they had to acknowledge could also be a 7.62-millimetre caliber, but did not consider it could have also been an FN MAG 7.62-millimetre caliber.
What else did Der Spiegel not consider?
They did not consider the possibility that it could have been a Turkish soldier who shot Gulzar.
Why was this never considered?
Both Der Spiegel and Bellingcat insisted that a 5.56-millimetre bullet killed the Pakistani national. It is well known that the Gendarmerie (Jandarma) were the main Turkish force at the Evros border during the migrant crisis.
Turkey’s Gendarmerie mostly use the Heckler & Koch G41 and a locally produced Heckler & Koch HK33, among others, that use 5.56-millimetre bullets.
This makes a mockery of Der Spiegel’s claim that the “evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the bullet came from a Greek firearm.”
As Gergerlioğlu told The Guardian, “Those people who died, [were] wounded, became miserable, lost their belongings, are just casualties for Erdoğan. He can construct such a game again.”
Why did Der Spiegel not pursue this possibility? It appears they have an anti-Greek agenda.
It also raises the question, why did Der Spiegel not contact the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex)?
Two days before the death of Gulzar, Frontex announced in a statement that it “has already increased surveillance capacity at the Greek borders.”
It would be assumed that any investigation into the death of Gulzar would also include Frontex’s account of that day.
When Greek City Times reached out to Frontex, they responded saying “We are not in a position to comment on this incident, we suggest to contact the Greek authorities directly.”
Although Frontex were unwilling to speak about the alleged shooting by Greek forces and felt confident enough to direct us to Greek authorities instead, it still raises the question on why Der Spiegel did not reach out to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency operating on the Greek-Turkish border region – one would imagine this would be a critical part of their evidence gathering.
Greek City Times reached out to Greek authorities, but at the time of publication they had not responded back – we will however report back if they do contact us.
The Greek government did release a statement though.
The Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesperson, Stelios Petsas, said “No new evidence is being presented today. So why is all this being replicated, two months later? Waging disinformation campaigns is nothing new for Turkey. Thankfully the international community understands the full extent of Turkey’s methods and practices.”
Corroborating Petsas’ account and as mentioned earlier in this article, TRT World were already exposed for producing fake news in regards to the migrant crisis.
There are of course the famous examples of the 1955 Thessaloniki bombing hoax that led to Turkey’s Istanbul pogrom against the Greek minority and the 1958 bomb hoax blamed on Greek Cypriots – among many, many others.
This article by Der Spiegel comes at a time when Frontex expects a number of illegal immigrants to soon head towards Greece again from Turkey, as reported by Greek City Times.
With this we can expect another disinformation by Turkey.
The question lingers though, will Der Spiegel, who already has a strong reputation for fake news, engage in another anti-Greek campaign that serves Turkey’s agenda of attempting to destabilise Greece with mass migration and omit critical questions, information and sources?
Let’s hope not, and also hope that their next investigation is much more carefully researched without such glaring inconsistencies and ‘holes’ in their narrative.
greekcitytimes.com/2020/05/09/der-spiegel-supports-turkish-propaganda-against-greece-but-there-are-major-holes-in-their-narrative/
Farage latest victim of ‘overzealous’ UK police
WATCH: Turkish IS supporter commits attack on Turkish grocery store in Waldkraiburg, Germany
When in the early morning hours of April 27th the window panes of a grocery store in Waldkraiburg burst and the shop was burst into flames, many residents of the Bavarian town no longer believed in coincidence. The fire developed quickly, the residents could no longer escape through the main entrance of the building, six residents were injured. Only the alarm of a resident and the quick action of the fire brigade prevented something worse. Only a ruin remains of the store, and the damage is amounting to millions.
The arson attack, which as it turns out later was preceded by an explosion, is part of a series of attacks: within ten days, in addition to the attack on the fruit and vegetable shop, there were stone throwing attacks against a hairdresser’s shop, a pizzeria and finally a kebab shop in Waldkraiburg. All the victims are of Turkish origin. The local criminal investigation department founded the fifty-member special commission “Prager”, and the Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism of the Munich Attorney General’s Office took over the case management.
In the meantime, a 25-year-old man was arrested who confessed to all four crimes and a warrant was issued against him. According to the investigators on Sunday noon, he called himself a follower of the “Islamic State” and had committed crimes out of hatred against Turks. No other country has suffered so many attacks and deaths by the so-called “Islamic State”. Turkey is therefore taking strong action against the Islamic terrorist militia. Just in the past few months there have been raids against the IS in Turkey, money has been confiscated and possible accounts of the Islamists have been blocked. In its publications, the IS repeatedly threatened to conquer the Turkish metropolis Istanbul. The Turkish state is seen as an enemy of the Islamists. The suspect is a German citizen born near Waldkraiburg, whose parents are from Turkey. Investigators have expressly denied that he had acted on the basis of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. He had been unemployed for several months. Witnesses questioned by the investigators reported an Islamic-religious radicalization of the man in recent years, which had led to quarrels with his family. Apart from violations of the narcotics law, he had not previously committed any criminal offences.The man had attracted attention at the train station in Mühldorf am Inn because he did not have a valid ticket. He was carrying a trolley and a sports bag containing ten ignitable pipe bombs and 20 kilograms of chemical materials for the production of explosives. The station was therefore cleared and closed off for safety reasons.After the man’s arrest, investigators of the State Criminal Police Office searched the offender’s apartment in Waldkraiburg as well as a vehicle in an underground garage in Garching an der Alz. According to the investigators, the vehicle contained 13 additional functional bombs as well as ten kilograms of materials suitable as explosives. In addition, a weapon with ammunition, black powder and other explosive materials were found in the perpetrator’s apartment. The man had made the bombs himself and had stated that he had planned further attacks. He did not have any concrete targets, but his plans were directed against Turkish institutions. Investigators are currently investigating whether there are accomplices or confidants and where he got his weapons and materials from.Contrary to various speculations in the social media, no “foreigners get out” graffiti was sprayed on the façade of the grocery store before the fire, and hatred against citizens of Waldkraiburg with a migration background is quite rare.
BBC refuses to ban ‘anti-Semitic’ corona expert from the air
The BBC, the UK’s national broadcaster, has rejected calls from a pro-Israel group to ban a public health expert from its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic after several of his anti-Semitic tweets were discovered.
Prof. John Ashton — a medical doctor and one of the UK’s leading experts on health — was alleged to have compared Zionism with Nazism in material posted on social media between 2012 and 2018. One tweet posted in 2014 suggested it was “time for Jews to reflect” on the situation in Gaza.
As a result, the lobbying organization Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) called on the BBC to drop Ashton from its roster of experts.
The professor had appeared several times in a recent edition of the flagship news program “Panorama” that focused on the British government’s response to the pandemic.
For his part, Ashton has denied the accusations of anti-Semitism.
In a letter earlier this week to CFI, the BBC’s director of news and current affairs, Francesca Unsworth, pushed back against the demand to drop Ashworth because of his comments about Zionism.
“I understand that Professor Ashton was eminently well qualified to speak about this subject [the Covid-19 pandemic],” Unsworth wrote. “Professor Ashton did not, of course, make any comments of the kind that you describe in this program and I hope you understand that I would have grave doubts about the impact on freedom of speech, and the BBC’s ability to report freely and impartially, if we were to ban contributors from speaking on the subject of their acknowledged expertise because of the political views they have expressed, however abhorrent some members of the audience may find them.”
She added: “More broadly, we do not ban any contributors from our output as you would wish.”
Two of CFI’s leaders — Lord Eric Pickles and Lord Stuart Pollak — slammed Unsworth’s response.
“We are disappointed with the BBC’s response, which shows a lack of self-awareness,” they declared in a statement. “BBC news coverage has rightly sought to hold organizations accountable for their use of individuals who are in breach of the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] modern definition of anti-Semitism.”
Added the two peers: “It smacks of double standards that they do not see the relevance of applying the same discipline to themselves. The BBC always have a choice of experts, all we ask is that they choose a participant that does not send an ambiguous message.”
algemeiner.com/2020/05/08/uk-broadcaster-rejects-pro-israel-groups-call-to-ban-antisemitic-covid-19-expert-from-programming/
Shocking new revelation: ‘We misjudged this disease completely’
Swiss Prof. Nils Kucher, angiologist at the University Hospital Zurich, explains why the Coronavirus was misjudged and criticized a decision by the German health authority, the Robert Koch Institute.
In no other German state were more Covid 19 deaths autopsied than in Hamburg. The forensic doctors of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) have submitted a study that is causing a sensation worldwide.
Accordingly, thrombosis and fatal pulmonary embolism occurred in more than half of Corona patient fatalities. Although the study only includes the first twelve post-mortem surveys, the surprising accumulation has also been confirmed in the 192 examined deaths, said Prof. Klaus Püschel, director at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the UKE, on Friday speaking to journalists.
The new findings should now also help with treatment. In the future, blood anticoagulants will probably be used more and more. Through more intensive preventive care, it can be ensured that “thromboses and embolisms do not develop,” said Püschel.
Seven of the twelve examined deaths had thrombosis, while four died directly from a pulmonary embolism. Before they died, there was no corresponding suspicion among those affected.
Germany weekly Spiegel however reported that the Robert-Koch Institute (RKI), which centralizes the data and regulates the procedures to be followed concerning the Covid-19 epidemic, first advised against autopsies.
A recommendation by the RKI dated March 24 stipulated that: “Internal forensic examination, autopsies or other measures producing aerosols should be avoided. If they are necessary, they should be kept to a minimum. ” On April 7, 2020, the two German associations of pathologists, the German Federation of Pathologists (BDP) and the German Pathology Society (DGP), sent a protest letter to the RKI.
Since then, the RKI has withdrawn its recommendation.
There have already been other indications that the novel Coronavirus could lead to thrombosis. In everyday clinical practice, it has already been seen that Covid-19 has led to thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in patients in an unusually large number of cases, said Prof. Stefan Kluge, Director of the Clinic for Intensive Care Medicine at the UKE.
“Sections of the deceased have now been confirmed. And it should be carefully considered whether patients can be treated primarily with a blood thinner,” said Kluge.
The study with the results of the autopsies was published in the prestigious American journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The study was reviewed by four independent experts before publication.
In reality only a minority of patients suffered from pneumonia, Alexandar Tzankov, director of the histology and autopsy department of the University Hospital of Basel, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The examination under the microscope revealed a “serious imbalance of the microcirculation of the lung”.
The Swiss team noted that inflammation was not limited to the lungs, but “actually concerned all of the endothelium of different organs”. Professor Frank Ruschitzka, director of the cardiology clinic at the University Hospital of Zurich, agreed that the disease should therefore be re-qualified and no longer focus on the pulmonary aspect.
Kucher has just launched an emergency study bringing together the five university hospitals in Switzerland, with the aim of checking whether anticoagulants can protect from these deadly clots.
For weeks already, reports have been issued regarding the effects on the body, many caused by clotting. “This is like a storm of blood clots,” Behnood Bikdeli, a fourth-year cardiology fellow at Columbia University in New York City told Nature.
Initially the focus was on ventilators and then on oxygen treatment to help patients with severe respiratory problems. But now hospitals are scrambling for more anticoagulant drugs and kidney dialysis machines.
Studies from the Netherlands and France suggest that clots appear in at least a third of critically ill patients. Jeffrey Laurence, a haematologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, also examined lung and skin samples from three patients and found that the capillaries were clogged with small clots.
“This is not what you’d expect to see in someone who just has a severe infection,” he says. “This is really very new.” Thus while patients often exhibit critically low blood-oxygen levels, mechanical ventilation is not the answer.
A large study in 166 UK hospitals carried out by a research consortium from Imperial College and Liverpool and Edinburgh universities showed that two-thirds of patients were admitted suffering from respiratory symptoms. But that proportion may be too high since it reflects the official case definition of Covid.
Tim Chico, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Sheffield university, told the Financial Times: “The risk of blood clots with Covid-19 appears to be even greater than the increased risk of blood clots seen in other severe illnesses.”
freewestmedia.com/2020/05/10/shocking-new-revelation-we-misjudged-this-disease-completely/
Coronavirus: Soros-funded NGO demands $1,200 for every illegal immigrant from US taxpayers
United We Dream, a George Soros-backed NGO, is demanding every illegal immigrant in the United States receive $1,200 in federal aid checks as a part of federal coronavirus aid, which could cost billions for American taxpayer if it were to be approved.
The NGO is making the demand in conjunction with a network of other pro-migration lobbying groups, such as the National Immigrant Justice Center, and the National Immigration Law Center. With estimates of the illegal alien population estimated between 11 to 22 million in the US, the migration groups are asking the federal government to issue checks for every illegal immigrant that has a Tax Identification Number (ITIN).
In an effort to aid struggling Americans, the US government has issued $1,200 checks for every American citizen with a social security number as well as “resident aliens”. The funds are meant to be help keep Americans afloat during the biggest American economic crisis since the Great Depression, including the estimated 22 million citizens who are now out of work.
United We Dream, which has received funding from Soros’s Open Society Foundation, believes that illegal residents should also have access to this aid. It is a part of a wide-range of open border activist pushing for more taxpayer funds for illegal immigrants.
Josue De Luna Navarro, who has worked for United We Dream and founded the NM Dream Team, a chapter of the United We Dream group, also took to Twitter to say that immigration and US citizenship should not determine whether someone has access to coronavirus funds.
These illegal immigrant advocate groups are using social media and their well-funded networks to call the public to push lawmakers to provide federal aid to illegal residents amid the crisis.
They have also started a petition that reads, “All people, regardless of immigration status, must be included in the stimulus. Cash payments must go to all taxpayers, including immigrants who pay using an ITIN… coronavirus testing and care must be free and accessible to all: Amend Emergency Medicaid to cover Covid-19 costs, so patients get care regardless of immigration status.”
The petition urges lawmakers to invalidate President Donald Trump’s “public charge” rule, which ensures that American taxpayers do not have to pay to permanently resettle legal immigrants who have relied on federal aid or welfare.
Soros is also a co-founder of the Democracy Alliance, which is recognized as the largest dark money network of donors for the left in the entire US. Within the group, each member vows to donate hundreds of thousands to groups the organization approves of. The United We Dream network is one of many organizations approved by the Democracy Alliance, along with a wide range of pro-migration and left-wing groups.
Soros is also known for his funding and cooperation with pro-migration groups and politicians across Europe, many of which have targeted Hungary’s conservative government and the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orban.
rmx.news/article/article/coronavirus-soros-funded-ngo-demands-1-200-for-every-illegal-immigrant-from-us-taxpayers
Profoundly radicalized jihadist arrested in Barcelona
A Moroccan citizen in Barcelona linked to ISIS was arrested in the district of Cuitat Vella, Barcelona, He had shown signs of radicalization and an affinity for the Islamic State for at least four years.
The police blocked traffic in the street where he resides, and agents searched the residence. According to the Civil Guard, that the radicalization of the individual was activated in a “highly noticeable and concerning manner”.
In addition, he was observed avoiding confinement [lockdown] in a habitual manner and without justification, in a possible search for targets.
According to the Civil Guard, the investigation, directed by Central Court of Investigation and the Public Prosecutor of the National Court, was carried out with the collaboration of the US FBI and General Directorate of Security of Morocco (DGST).
freewestmedia.com/2020/05/10/profoundly-radicalized-jihadist-arrested-in-barcelona/
Italy: China’s Trojan Horse into Europe
A few days after China had announced it was sending medical supplies to Italy, Chinese state media aired pictures of Italians on balconies and streets applauding the Chinese national anthem. “In Rome, with the Chinese anthem playing, some Italians chanted ‘Grazie, Cina!’ on their balconies, & their neighbors applauded along”, wrote Zhao Lijian, the spokesman for China’s foreign ministry who shamefully and wrongly suggested that the U.S. military had brought the Covid-19 to Wuhan.
China presented itself in the role of the savior, willing to rush to the bedside of the sick patient Italy.
Now a Financial Times investigation reveals that those videos were manipulated as part of Beijing’s coronavirus propaganda. Hashtags #ThanksChina and #GoChina&Italy were further generated by bots. A report by the Carnegie Endowment called Italy “a target destination for China’s propaganda”.
An article called, “Why the Covid-19 epidemic is so politicized” and posted on the Chinese embassy website in Paris, said, “Some Westerners are beginning to lose confidence in liberal democracy” and “some [Western countries] have become psychologically weak”.
Antoine Bondaz, a researcher at France’s Foundation for Strategic Research, toldPolitico:
“China considers Europe the soft belly of the West. In their logic, there is the West, and in it the U.S. that will oppose China for structural and ideological reasons, and their European allies that need to be neutral in case of conflict between China and the U.S.”
According to Lt. Gen. (ret.) H.R. McMaster, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, in his new book Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World, Chinese leaders “believe they have a narrow window of strategic opportunity to strengthen their rule and revise the international order in their favor”.
There is now a huge risk that Italy is becoming “China’s Trojan horse into Europe“.
A leading French official, Pierre-Henri d’Argenson, wrote in Le Figaro that “Europe has now become the buffer zone for the confrontation between China and the United States”. Beijing chose Italy as its soft belly in Europe and is following its script.
In April 2019, the Italian government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was the first G7 country to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” during a state visit by President Xi Jinping. According to an analysis by The Economist, the Chinese Belt and Road plan could surpass the Marshall Plan, by which the US revived Europe’s war ravaged economies.
Italy has a government coalition led by the Five Star Movement, an extremely pro-Chinese party, whose founder Beppe Grillo has been spotted frequently at the Chinese embassy in Rome. As the European Council on Foreign Relations reported, “in Italy business and political lobbies for China have been on the rise”. The former PM Matteo Renzi has visited Beijing for conferences.
Five years ago, China National Chemical Corp bought Pirelli, a 143-year-old Italian company, and the world’s fifth-largest tire maker. A study published by KPMG before the Pirelli deal revealed Chinese acquisitions in Italy have totaled 10 billion euros in five years (in a total of 13 billion euros investments). A third of foreign purchases in Italy are Chinese. The goal is to turn Italy into “Europe’s top destination for highly coveted investment from China”.
Now, China is trying to dominate southern Europe’s infrastructure. China was already granted a license to run Greece’s largest seaport, Athens’ Piraeus harbor, which Beijing plans to turn into Europe’s biggest commercial harbor. Then China started to project its expansion in Italy’s ports, where four major ports are also in line for Chinese investments. Zeno D’Agostino, the president of Trieste’s northern port, says that “China is opening because it feels strong”.
Italy’s political appeasement of China was on display during the fatal early days of the coronavirus crisis.
On January 21, Italy’s culture and tourism minister hosted a Chinese delegation for a concert at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to inaugurate the year of Italy-China Culture and Tourism. Michele Geraci, Italy’s former undersecretary for development, was not sure that was his place. “Are we sure we want to do this?”, Geraci said looking at his colleagues. “Should we be here today?”. A few days later, in many Italian cities, such as Florence and Prato, where there is a Chinese manufacturing stronghold, mayors and local communities promoted the initiative, “hug a Chinese” to fight xenophobia and racism.
In Rome, Italy’s President, Sergio Mattarella, visited a school that has a high percentage of Chinese students to counter “discrimination” and Nicola Zingaretti, the leader of the Democratic Party, met the Chinese ambassador in Rome. Meanwhile, Italian televisions organized live tastings of Chinese products. That was Italy’s fatal initial mistake: fighting racism instead of the virus, which only a few days later would devastate the country.
China has been able to brainwash Italian public opinion. In a poll published April 17, 50% of Italians consider China a “friend” (just 17% of Italians think as much of the United States). And in the race for the global power to which Italy should be allied China is ahead of the US, 36% to 30%.
Italy’s foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, welcomed a plane-load of Chinese medical supplies on March 12. “We will remember those who were close to us in this difficult period”, Di Maio said. It is not necessary, China will remind them.
Walter Ricciardi, an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Italian government, tweeted: “Thanks China!”.
We know now that while the Chinese regime misled the world about the contagiousness of Covid-19, it stockpiled medical supplies. As the editor of the German BILD wrote in a letter to Chinese president Xi:
“I suppose you consider it a great ‘friendship’ when you now generously send masks around the world. This isn’t friendship, I would call it imperialism hidden behind a smile – a Trojan Horse”.
Not a single Italian minister or official blamed China for the cover up of the epidemic or causing witnesses to “disappear“.
“For the first time in many years, Western countries united behind the request to China for clarifications on how Covid-19 was born and then spread”, Paolo Mieli wrote in a front-page editorial for Italy’s largest newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera. Mieli mentioned the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, France and Germany.
“Who is missing? Italy, the only country in the Western world to have welcomed half a million masks sent to us (for a fee) from China with a truly excessive blaze”.
The world-renowned Italian textile industry was one of the major victims of a globalization expansion led by Chinese dishonest economic dumping. China is now reducing Italy to a setting to help spread and implement its propaganda and will to power. As Italian analyst Francesco Galietti wrote, Italy is going to become “the target of a Chinese ‘charm offensive’, a combination of hard cash and ‘soft power’, money and influence”. He notes as an example the People’s Bank of China:
“It has steadily amassed stakes above 2 percent (the disclosure threshold in Italy) in a slew of Italy’s largest shareholder-owned companies, including FCA (the Fiat Chrysler group), Telecom Italia, and Generali Group, Italy’s largest insurer”.
China has also invested in strategic Italian energy entities such as Eni and Eneland Italian oil services group Saipem.
This economic penetration will also have immense security consequences. During the first days of the Covid-19 epidemic, Italy, which is being lured by the promise of a $3 billion Huawei investment in its telecommunications system, announcedthat it has no plans to stop Chinese telecom firms playing a role in the country’s future 5G network. It is a project that US Attorney General William P. Barr defined a “monumental danger“.
“The geopolitical effects of the pandemic could be significant,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “Some allies (are) more vulnerable for situations where critical infrastructure can be sold out” in a Chinese “buying spree”. US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has also warned that China will exploit the virus “to further their own interests and try to sow division in the Alliance and in Europe”.
Italy is most vulnerable to this Chinese offensive. It is one of the most indebtedcountries in the world and has an economic growth close to zero. It is also one of Europe’s most unstable and fragile governments and had one of Europe’s highest coronavirus death tolls — an experience that an Italian nurse compared to a “world war“.
Italy is now Europe’s sick man. Due to the Chinese coronavirus crisis, the country will see a collapse of its GDP (-9.5%) and the explosion of its public debt which is set to 160% of gross domestic product — the highest since World War II. Beijing knows this and claims that “Italy has many economic problems, Europe is in crisis and the Belt and Road Initiative is the only major global investment plan”.
“The possibility that Europe will become a museum or a cultural amusement park for the nouveau riche of globalization is not completely out of the question”, saidthe late historian Walter Laqueur. Rome’s dramatic fall could mean Beijing’s equally dramatic rise. It is a huge warning for the West.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15999/italy-china-trojan-horse
