Italian foreign minister calls for closer ties with China
July 21, 2011
Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini told an audience in Beijing that his nation will encourage warmer relations with China, and especially the influx of Chinese capital into the Italian financial market.
“Italy trusts China,” Frattini said. He spoke warmly of the Chinese investment funds that “continue to bring resources” into Europe.
Frattini’s speech was delivered, coincidentally, on the same day that an American prelate, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, released a column expressing concern that Western nations seem willing to overlook the Chinese attacks on religious freedom—and especially on the Catholic Church—in order to secure continued access to Chinese capital.
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Further information:
- Relations warm between China and Italy (ANSA)
- Bishop Finn fears Chinese economic power buys silence on campaign against Church (CWN, 7/20)
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