Lessons from Italy: To Kowtow to China is to Embrace Pestilence and Death

As I begin typing this on 24 Mar, 2020, at 19:04 US Central Time (GMT -6), Johns Hopkins University reports there have been 417,966 confirmed cases (297,172 outside of Mainland China, this plague's source): 18,916 have died, 108,578 have recovered.

Italy

74,386 confirmed infections.
7,503 dead (a fatality rate of more than 10%).
And all that is up from 3 confirmed cases, barely more than a month ago, in a population of roughly 60 million.

And all of Italy (and now the world) is asking "why?"
Why is Italy being ravaged by this virus that the Chinese and their pets at the W.H.O. assured us was "preventable and controllable (BBC Staff)?"

The answer is simple: Italy didn't heed the world's warnings to isolate China, whence came the virus, and chose instead to kiss the hand of their Chinese masters.

Italy has a long, sad history of China-worship. From being the first Western power to abandon the R.O.C. and recognize the Mao Dynasty (Hoffman), to being the only major EU member (and the only G7 member) willing to join China's Billed and Owned Belt and Road Initiative (Ellyat), to their decision to ignore Spywei Huawei's openly declared mandate to further the PLA's intelligence gathering mission, thus inviting a Chinese stranglehold over their telecom industry (Davies), Italy has carried the self-anointed "Central Nation's" banner to the West for decades.
Or, given Italian Explorer Marco Polo's cloyingly sycophantic praise of Kublai Khan's kingdom in his "Travels (despite some questions of whether or not he ever even made it to China (Squires))," perhaps one could say "centuries."

Regardless of how far back it goes, China's footprint in Italy is clear and obvious. For several years, a Chinese colony immigrant community in Northern Italy has thrived, taking Italian jobs way from the local (now Chinese-owned) factories, to produce goods to boost the Chinese economy (Real American Pundit Staff) by selling them back to Italy at exorbitant rates, while illegally funneling Italian money to China.

They discovered that more than 4.5 billion euros ($4.9 billion) — the proceeds of counterfeiting, prostitution, labor exploitation and tax evasion — had been smuggled out of Italy to China in less than four years using a money-transfer service. Nearly half that money was funneled through one of China’s largest state banks, the Bank of China, which earned more than 758,000 euros in commissions on the transfers, according to Italian investigative documents obtained by The Associated Press. -(Kinetz).

These Chinese colonists have a history of thinking themselves to be above Italian law, and riots on the basis of "you think-a you can write-a citation to me?! Foolish laowai! I am Chah-neez-a! I no boun-da by yoo lawz!" have been common in the past .

The owner reacted angrily after an inspector noted minor violations of health and safety rules, shoving the inspector and the police accompanying him, according to a police source.
Chinese workers then barricaded themselves inside the factory, and hundreds more gathered outside. They threw stones and bottles at the police carrying truncheons and shields sent in to disperse the crowd. Two Chinese citizens and a policeman were injured. (Ognibene)

To protect their colonists from the uppity Italian natives who refused to show proper deference their masters (if you can read that without recognizing the sarcasm you're probably Chinese), the Chinese government rebuked their vassal state formerly known as Italy for the crime of thinking their laws applied to those from the "Celestial Empire," and imposed an extraterritoriality agreement whereby Chinese police would patrol Italian cities, with an openly declared mandate to protect Chinese citizens from Italians who might foolishly think Italy was a sovereign state (Meng).

China's Ministry of Public Security said 10 Chinese police officers will join the Italian police for a three-week joint patrol in Rome, Milan, Turin and Padua, to help handle cases and incidents related to the safety of Chinese travelling or living in Italy. (Li).

With Chinese rule in what was once Italy so well and truly established, it came as little surprise during the #Chinesevirus crisis when Italy started echoing China's official line that it was somehow "racist" to claim that a SARS-like virus that began in Central China, near a Chinese virology lab that works on viruses similar to SARS (which broke out in China in 2003), and spread from bats to an illegally-hunted Chinese delicacy (pangolins) due to China's wildlife trade (which brought these animals into proximity thanks to Chinese wet market conditions), and then spread to Humans due to China's third-world hygiene, before being covered up by China's government, so Chinese tourists could travel around the world on a Chinese holiday while China lied to the W.H.O (whose leader owes his office to Chinese lobbying and comes from a country in hock to China) about everything from Human-to-Human transmission to the fatality rate.... could possibly be China's fault.
I suppose when China's sleazy citizenry took the habit of lying about their symptoms so they could still take their vacations abroad (McGleenon; Rouse), or when Chinese abroad began coughing on flight crews (Steinbuch (1)) and spitting on busses in Bangkok (Inquirer Staff) in open, spiteful attempts to spread the virus, surely, none of this indicates a systemic, cultural or societal problem in China that could possibly contribute to the spread of a plague (again), right?

So while Russia (Steinbuch (2)), the US (Waldron & Ali) and numerous other countries wisely banned entry from China (a move which China ignored from all sources except its rival, but claimed the US was "racist" for it (Wu) which has saved lives (Arthur; Oliver)), Italy decided they did not want to "stigmatize" any particular nation.

A proposal to isolate travelers from China was considered as ‘racist’
The esteemed virologist included: “There was a proposal to isolate persons coming from the epicenter, coming from China.”
Having said that, the Italian federal government balked at the strategy out of singling out travelers coming from China out of worry it could be construed as racist. (Jones)

As such, the city of Florence, Lombardy (in northern Italy) launched their "I am not a virus" campaign (Chen), including the celebration of "Hug a Chinese Day" on 4 February, 2020 (Webster).
It should also be noted, Florence is in Lombardy, where the above-mentioned riots occurred among the local Chinese population (the largest in Italy). Oh, and what two major cities do most of the migrants in this city (including the new wave of hundreds of thousands who just arrived in January) come from? One of them is Wenzhou. Care to take three guesses which virus-ridden home of the Yellow-Crane-Tower is the other?

So then, is it any surprise that now, as Italy's death toll surpasses that of China, it is Lombardy that contains more than half of all Italy's Covid-19 cases? Is it any surprise that ground zero for Europe's epicenter of the Chinese virus, just happens to be the part of a Chinese vassal state where the largest Chinese population lives?

But China was not content with simply killing swaths of Italians. They were not even content to try and lay the blame for the pandemic at the feet of the survivors. No, China had further humiliation in mind for their obedient subjects in Italy. First came the social media campaign of Chinese keyboard warriors masquerading as Italians, berating the Italian government and pouring out praise for China that borders on deification.

Then, to bolster their own image as a "benevolent overlord," China ordered their Italian subordinates to sing the praises of the "Glorious Central Nation" for the medical aid they generously donated... Oh, wait. That wasn't a donation at all. It was bought and paid for, at inflated prices (pomplii).

Also, as China's "it is a US Bioweapon" narrative (Taer), falls so completely apart that not even the Chinese believe it (Lhatoo), Italian "experts" have faithfully aided their Chinese masters in peddling the story that the virus came from ANYWHERE BUT HERE! somewhere outside of China (Quartz Staff). And oh, how kind of Italy to throw themselves upon their sword for their masters and offer themselves as the "someone (Liu)." Reading this self-debasing nonsense by an Italian doctor as the Chinese virus lays waste to Italy while China sells dubious medical supplies to stricken Italy at exorbitant rates, I can almost hear Wormtail chanting "flesh of the servant, willingly given."

Anything for "Great China," right?

You know, it was an ancient Chinese custom for enslaved concubines to offer themselves as a burnt sacrifice upon their masters' funeral pyres (Parkes; Zhang). And it seems that China, knowing he is about to die, has ordered his concubine, Italy, after a lifetime of abuse and humiliation, to burn with her master.

There is a poem called Mia Italia (My Italy), by Francesco Petrarca, which is so dear to the Italian heart that Niccolo Macchiavelli ends his magnum Opus, The Prince, by quoting a famous passage from it.

Virtu contro al Furore
Prendera l'arme, e fia il combatter corto:
Che l'antico valore
Negli italici cuor non e ancor morto.
(For the old Roman valor is not dead,
nor in th'Italians breasts extinguished)

Well, sorry to say it, Francesco, but it looks like you were wrong.
Meanwhile, we can all learn a harsh lesson from Italy: spread your legs for China, and you end up fucked.

As I finish typing this on 26 Mar, 2020, at 03:03 US Central Time (GMT -6), Johns Hopkins University reports there have been 472,109 confirmed cases (390,378 outside of Mainland China, this plague's source: 74,386 in Italy): 21,308 have died, 114,870 have recovered.

POST-PUBLICATION EDIT:
At 5:51 AM US Central time on 28 March 2020, this article from The Quint came to my attention, by an Italian who is quite rightly disgusted with the state of affairs I outline in this article. She condemns the Chinese propaganda campaign, lambasts China for being the source of the virus, and goes on to demand reparations and even, in her own words, war damages, from China (and who can blame her?) If this author speaks for a significant percentage of the population of Italy, they may not be as far gone as I thought.

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