The decision to join the Silk Road multiplied China’s exports to Italy but did not have the same effect on Italian exports to China, Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said. “The issue today is: how to walk back [from the BRI] without damaging relations [with Beijing], because it is true that China is a competitor, but it is also a partner,” Crosetto added. Italy signed up to the BRI under a previous government, becoming the only major Western country to have taken such a step.
Here are two articles, with several examples of how China is using the BRI as a tool to put other countries in its debt.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/its-debt-trap-managing-china-imf-cooperation-across-belt-and-road
https://intpolicydigest.org/the-economic-impact-of-china-s-belt-and-road-initiative/
It’s a capitalistic economic colonialism. They’ve learned so much from the west. They must be so proud to have completely abandoned communism in favor of capitalism.