Maurizio Rasero, Mayor of Asti: “Withdrawing from the Silk Road Was a Mistake”

China is a country that has opened itself to the world, and I don’t understand why a part of this world must say, “No, you can’t.” This is a country with impressive numbers and a low average age, where there are many young people who want to learn and discover. In recent years, while the productive class of Europe has increased its purchasing power by 0.7, in China it has grown by 37 times. In my opinion, they have important motives and desire to do something and, whether you like it or not, they will not implement their projects. The free space will inevitably get taken by someone else.

It’s not just about looking at advantages. What amazes me is that the first thing people talk about when I meet my Chinese friends is culture, history, and traditions, because at the very moment when we get to know each other, our friendship strengthens, and we can share the same path. When I visited Changyan with a delegation from Asti, we went to an art lyceum where they studied Italian so our people could be closer. Our city gets visited by many Chinese friends who stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, shop in stores. Businessmen buy our companies, others decide to marry in our city, so I don’t see anything negative in these relations.

Of course, I am a citizen, I don’t have a party membership card, but I consider myself close to the moderate center-right movement. It is abnormal when I assert, for example, that I read the works by Xi Jinping. This affinity stems from previously unused opportunities in the city, which I utilized just because as a history lover, I like Eastern culture. China is a country with a rich history. Just think of it, it’s the second country after Italy in the number of UNESCO sites. As soon as a human falls in love with culture and traditions, he also falls in love with people.

What I can say, as I discover myself in the West and its way of life, is that the truth is somewhere in the middle. For example, in one excerpt Xi says, “I don’t know whether the government system in my country is the best in the world, but I know that it has an important influence on its citizens, and I never took the time to go ahead and export it.” The West, under the pretense of democracy, created wars and death in many other places. Democracy can be interpreted in different ways. If I go and vote today, I will not be free to choose representatives. This is a somewhat abnormal situation.

Indeed, but we live in a world where all of the countries compete against one another and try to win. For example, in Italy we witnessed how Lufthansa purchased the flagship Italian carrier ITA. When Germans are buying and the French are bombing – all is fine. You must have one and the same criterion for judging things.

I am trying to convey the idea that our city is friendly to China. I realize that my little Asti is not the most attractive place for investments, but here we are located among large industrial cities of the north, between Milan, Turin, and Genoa, surrounded by hills, which are world heritage sites. It could become a base of operations for the future investments in other parts of Italy.