The Chinese role and influence have expanded in all NATO member states, especially with the acceleration of the scope and number of giant projects in NATO countries, as the Chinese government and its companies implemented hundreds of projects in the Eurasia region within the framework of the Belt and Road initiative, which was launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013, Modern Diplomacy writes. The forms of the extensive Chinese encroachment ranged to participate, buy or rent an increasing number of seaports overlooking the Mediterranean, some of which are important ports and ports used by NATO. For example, China controls the famous Greek port of Prius. It also finances highway and railway projects between the Balkan countries and Hungary.
China relatively dominates the global maritime arena and the management and operation of global ports, the most 50 largest ports in the world, especially in Europe are invested by China. With regard to container ports, five giant Chinese companies in the field of transport control 18% of all container shipping activities operated by the 20 largest companies in the world, according to data issued by Dury Company, a Chinese consulting company in the field of shipping.
In 2016, Beijing set up a national giant through China merger of China Ocean Shipping and China Shipping Company to form giant COSCO Shipping and Container Company, which is a huge trading group company that includes seven branches of international subsidiaries and shipping line bearing the same name. COSCO is known worldwide and performs different commercial activities in the field of shipping.
Three giant Chinese companies for shipping and containers globally are competing at the NATO’s member states and the world, and all of them are working in the field of port operation. These companies are China Merchants Port Holdings, Cosco Group and China Shipping Terminal Development. These companies are vigorously competing with the three major global dominant companies AP Moller Maersk of the Netherlands, BSA International of Singapore and Hutchison Ports Holdings of Hong Kong.
The most amazing thing is China’s control of the port of Long Beach in California, which is the second-largest container port in the United States of America. As the deal to acquire the Long Beach Port by the Chinese Cosco Company, through its subsidiary company in Hong Kong, was finally approved, the COSCO Group has become the third-largest shipping company in the world. It controls Kaohsiung Port in southwest Taiwan as well.
China has also started to operate its company COSCO Shipping Ports in Piraeus Port in Greece in 2008. Since then, Chinese companies have expanded in the three largest ports in Europe, as it acquired a 35% stake in Euromax Port in Rotterdam, a 20% stake in the Port of Antwerp in Belgium. China also started actual planning for the construction of a terminal for Chinese containers and cargo ships in the port of Hamburg in Germany.
In Italy, Chinese state companies were allowed to manage or maintain stakes in Italian ports to expand exports between China and Italy in the framework of the announced agreement between them. The Italian port of Trieste is subject to intense interest from Beijing, as the giant Chinese company China Communications Construction manages some pilot projects in the port in northern Italy. Another giant Chinese ship and container shipping company in the ports of NATO’s member states is called China Merchants. It is a Chinese state-owned company, headquartered in Hong Kong that negotiates with the Italian government to establish a joint venture for the ship and container terminal between China and Italy in the Italian port of Trieste.
But, what is remarkable here, is the rejection of a number of Italian officials of that Chinese deal. The governor of the Veneto region Luca Zaia, as the region adjacent to Trieste that administers Venice, rejected the Italian-Chinese deal, as he described it in the Italian media by saying: “The proposed Chinese deal to manage and operate the port of Trieste at Italy carries a new form of colonialism." The importance of the Italian port of Trieste for China is due to Beijing from a strategic point of view because it will connect the Mediterranean with landlocked countries, such as Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Serbi, all of which are markets that China hopes to reach them through its Belt and Road Initiative, and thus the Italian port of Trieste is the most important station for China in Europe on the Chinese Silk Road. The country plans to make it always open to Chinese investments.
The Italian government also agreed to contract a deal between the Port Authority in the Italian port of Genoa and the giant China Communications Construction Company.
The head of the Italian port system authority in the western Ligurian Sea, Paolo Emilio Signorini, confirmed that "the Italian Ports Authority is working to create a company in partnership with the China Communications Construction Company to manage and operate the main Italian ports.”
Perhaps because of the American fear of Chinese expansion in Italian ports, US former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited both Italy and the Vatican in late September 2020, exactly weeks after the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Italy and four other European countries. Beijing has set its primary goal of investing in four Italian ports within the framework of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, especially after Italy’s announcement as the first European country to join the Chinese initiative of the Belt and Road. China has set its plan to expand its ownership in Italian ports as s part of the Belt and Road Initiative projects. In particular two ports in the north of the Adriatic Sea of Italy, Tristi and Ravenna, after the Italian and Chinese governments agreed within a Chinese plan to compete with the main European ports.
Chinese companies have succeeded in owning actual shares of seaports in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany, thus becoming an important player in the field of European ports. It is estimated that state-backed Chinese investors own at least 10% of the total shares of all ports in Europe.
The Chinese Cosco Company succeded in the acquisition of a terminal in the port of Trieste in northern Italy and Zeebrugge port, which is the second-largest port in Belgium. The United States of America, in its turn, imposed sanctions on five companies affiliated with the giant China Communications Construction. in August 2020. The US accuses the company of militarization of the South China Sea.
Due to the fear of the Chinese presence in the European ports, the US proposes alternative projects to oppose the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. Since many European states have challenged Washington and cooperated with China, it is clear that China expands its influence in the European ports. The European Union, mainly by France and Germany, have expressed their reservations about the Italian deal for the operation and management of its ports by Chinese companies, and NATO fears the increasing Chinese influence on the strategic and important Italian ports on the Mediterranean.
