Italy and China are building ties
But for decades,
Chinese people in Italy
Have been learning Italy’s secrets.
Welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
In the 13th Century,
Venecian explorer Marco Polo visited China.
There, he allegedly learned the secret of making noodles—
and brought it back to Italy to make a knockoff version called “spaghetti.”
But now China is learning something from Italy.
Shelley Zhang went to Italy to find out more.
Italy and China have been friends since...
well, ancient times.
And that’s something that Chinese leader Xi Jinping
emphasized during his trip to Italy back in March of this year.
That trip was when Italian and Chinese authorities
signed a Memorandum of Understanding,
making Italy the first major Western economy
to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative...
also known as One Belt,
One Way to Get Debt-Ridden European Countries to Do Your Bidding.
While the MOU itself was extremely vague,
with commitments to “work towards”
and “explore ways”
and “enhance dialogue,”
Italy and China also signed 2.5 billion euros worth of trade deals,
linking their economies for years to come.
But over the last decade plus,
China has already had more and more influence on Italy’s economy.
One example is the millions of Chinese tourists
who visit Venice and other Italian cities each year.
Chinese tourists are welcomed by Italian businesses
for being high spenders.
And the Italian government has been
encouraging more Chinese tourism,
including through PR stunts,
like briefly having Chinese police patrol
popular tourist destinations like Venice.
Although given the reputation of Chinese police in China,
I’m not sure that’s going to make anyone feel safer.
China is also affecting the economics of tourist...souvenirs.
As in many parts of the world,
the vast majority of souvenirs in Venice
are made in China.
And it’s not just cheap hats and scarves
It’s affecting traditional Venentian crafts...
No, traditional Venetian crafts like these masks—
which have been made by hand here in Venice for hundreds of years.
They’re now being replaced with Chinese-factory made plastic versions
sold at a fraction of the price.
And everywhere I went,
I saw stores selling discount leather bags.
Except *these* discount bags say “Made in Italy.”
Are they counterfeits?
No.
It’s much more complicated than that.
And the answer lies in here in Prato.
With almost 200,000 people,
Prato is the third largest city in central Italy.
And it’s been famous for making textiles since the Middle Ages.
Textiles and biscotti.
But outside Prato’s Medieval walls,
the face of the city’s textile industry
has changed rapidly in the last 20 years.
This is the Via Pistoiese,
home to Prato’s Chinatown.
Officially, around 20,000 Chinese people live in Prato.
But the actual number may be almost triple that due to illegal immigration.
Prato has the highest concentration of Chinese immigrants in Italy.
Almost all of them from the city of Wenzhou,
in China’s Zhejiang province.
Back in the 1990s,
Chinese immigrants came to Prato
to work in the textile factories.
And then to buy the textile factories.
By then, a lot of Italian-owned factories were losing
business to cheaper fabrics made in...well, China.
But instead of making fabric,
the Chinese factories in Prato would import fabric from China,
and make cheap fast fashion, undercutting the locals.
They eventually got into the lucrative leather goods market, too.
All technically made in Italy.
By Chinese workers.
We walked through the back streets of Prato,
and secretly filmed some of these Chinese fast fashion factories.
Hidden behind unmarked steel doors,
these were small operations.
Less than a dozen people,
mostly at sewing machines.
Some of the workers we talked to were worried
that we might be from the Italian government.
The Italian government has conducted
a lot of raids on Chinese factories,
following reports of sweatshop conditions,
illegal workers, and unpaid taxes.
We did witness some...
questionable safety practices.
Remember kids, don’t sew and smoke.
And workers at the types of factories we saw
have talked about working long hours...
and sleeping in the factories.
But some Chinese factory owners feel unfairly targeted,
especially since they have revived the economy
of places like Prato.
For example, Chinese factories may evade taxes,
but you could argue that in Italy,
tax evasion is practically a national pastime.
And not all Chinese factories
are the sweatshop-like places we visited.
Outside Prato’s Chinatown
are higher-end Chinese factories and showrooms.
Some of these make products for famous Italian fashion houses
like Prada and Gucci.
That’s given rise to a Chinese middle class in Prato.
Chinese immigrants have even built
an entire economy around the factories...
setting up supermarkets, restaurants,
even a whole street of wedding-related businesses
to cater to a growing Chinese community.
I mean, who wouldn’t want to eat at Ravioli Liu’s?
But critics say that Chinese money isn’t going into the Italian economy.
Back in 2017, the state-owned Bank of China
was forced to pay Italy more than 20 million euros
connected to a money laundering case.
Prosecutors alleged that “more than 4.5 billion euros
had been smuggled to China from Italy...
by Chinese people living mainly in Florence
and the nearby city of Prato.”
Half of that was through the Bank of China.
And there’s an even darker side to this economic growth.
Last year, Italian authorities busted what they say
was a Chinese mafia group based in Prato.
One that was involved in gambling, prostitution,
and trucking Chinese goods across Europe.
As we walked around Prato,
we saw several gambling halls.
And lots of these flyers,
advertising “massage parlors”.
This one offers “very pretty 18 year old girls
who’ve just come from China.”
Prostitution is legal in Italy,
but organized prostitution and brothels are not.
Social workers told an Al Jazeera reporter
that in these cases,
there could be human trafficking involved.
According to the UN,
there are lots of Chinese victims of human trafficking in Italy.
They could end up doing forced labor in textile factories in cities like Prato,
or doing sex work in apartments and massage parlours.
Prato, with all of its complications,
is a microcosm of how globalization
has linked the Chinese and Italian economies.
And that’s before Chinese and Italian officials
promised even more cooperation.
After the two countries signed the agreement on the Belt and Road,
Italy’s deputy prime minister
praised it as “a day when Made in Italy has won.”
But as a trip through Prato shows,
China is changing what Made in Italy means.
Chinese companies,
often exploiting workers in the same factory conditions
they’d have in mainland China,
can legally take advantage of the high quality
“Made in Italy” brand.
Until that brand loses its meaning.
And the money leaves the country.
So ultimately,
the one who benefits from this “Made in Italy” partnership
might just be China.
This is Shelley Zhang, reporting from Italy.
Thanks, Shelley.
So what do you think?
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Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
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