Euractiv.com with Reuters Est. 2min 19-12-2022 The Italian (C), China (L) and EU flags flutter in the wind at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy, 22 March 2019. On that day President Xi Jinping was in Italy to sign a memorandum of understanding to make Italy the first Group of Seven leading democracies to join China's ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project. [EPA-EFE/ALESSANDRO DI MEO] Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>> Languages: ItalianPrint Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Italy will stop letting Chinese police take part in joint patrols with its officers in its territory, the interior minister said in an interview published on Monday (19 December), after reports that Beijing ran police-like operations abroad. Safeguard Defenders, a rights group based in Spain, has said it has evidence of 102 Chinese “service stations”, sometimes used to pressure Chinese citizens in 53 countries, including 11 stations in Italy. For the latest and most up-to-date list of the (so far) exposed Chinese police overseas "service stations", see @safeguarddefend latest investigation here.https://t.co/s3iP7h6XTh — Safeguard Defenders (保护卫士) (@SafeguardDefend) December 8, 2022 Chinese authorities have dismissed the accusations and said the facilities are volunteer-run centres which help their citizens renew documents and offer other services that were disrupted during the COVID pandemic. The Chinese embassy in Rome did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday. Safeguard Defenders says the “service stations” in Italy are linked to a 2015 bilateral deal that let Chinese police officers take part in joint patrols with Italian counterparts in Rome, Milan, Naples and other centres. “I can say that those forms of cooperation will no longer be practiced or replicated in other forms,” Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told Il Foglio newspaper. He told parliament earlier this month that the joint patrol pact with China had nothing to do with the establishment of any “service stations” in Italy. The joint patrols took place in 2016-2019 and were “suspended” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Piantedosi said. In 2019, Italy became the first major industrialised nation to sign up to its Belt and Road Initiative – a colossal project designed to improve Beijing’s trade reach. Little has so far come of the pact, and Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has struck a more hawkish tone on China. Safeguard Defenders has said that Beijing is using the centres in various countries to pressure some Chinese expatriates to return to China to face criminal charges. It says such operations are illegal and most likely target dissidents. Several governments, including in Canada, the United States and the Netherlands, reacted to the NGO reports with investigations, but a common effort across the European Union is missing, according to the group. (Edited by Georgi Gotev) Read more with Euractiv France slams Israel's expulsion of French-Palestinian lawyerFrench-Palestinian human rights lawyer Salah Hamouri, held without charge in Israeli prisons since March accused of security offences, arrived in Paris on Sunday (18 December) following his expulsion from Israel condemned by Paris.
