“The PD is not a monolith when it comes to China”. Malpezzi speaks out

“I have never sensed this kind of absolutism within the party,” Simona Malpezzi, a Democratic Party senator with a keen interest in foreign policy issues, tells Il Foglio when asked whether there is a risk within Italy’s main opposition party of selectively listening to the People’s Republic of China, whilst perhaps paying less attention to those countries that are actually subjected to Beijing’s authoritarianism and coercive practices: “This sensitivity does exist; it is not a monolith.” Malpezzi visited Taiwan in January – as have other members of the party in the past – but was unable to attend the meeting with former President Tsai Ing-wen in Rome as she was engaged on another mission. She explains that she would have gone: “I do understand that, as head of the Foreign Affairs Secretariat, there are precautions to be taken, but I didn’t see any closed-mindedness.”

According to Malpezzi, “for a party that wants to govern”, it is important to maintain channels of communication with everyone, including Beijing, “but from my point of view, one thing does not preclude the other”. Indeed, if anything, the problem lies with those who sever relations on the basis of an open dialogue that also extends to Taipei: “On Taiwan, I fully defend their will and their democracy; I am on their side. I think what they have built is a tremendous example. On the other hand, I regret if my view of them might be criticised, but the problem is not mine, nor is it that of the democratic world”. Like Malpezzi, other PD MPs claim to have been, and to remain, open to direct dialogue with representatives from Taiwan or with anyone who has suffered interference from the Chinese Communist Party. But would you advise the PD’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Peppe Provenzano, or Vinicio Peluffo, president of the parliamentary association ‘Friends of China’, to make a trip to Taipei? “I would always go to Taiwan, come what may, but I don’t think they need my suggestion: they, too, believe in parliamentary diplomacy just as I do,” says Malpezzi.