Strategic partnerships and China’s diplomacy in Europe: Insights from Italy

As discussions of a ‘new cold war’ between China and the West intensify, it has never been more important to understand how engages internationally. Crucially, as 2022, established 110 ‘strategic partnerships’, without stipulating any formal treaty alliance, but we know little about strategic partnerships uses them, despite their centrality foreign policy tool. Departing from assumption state unitary monolithic actor in international affairs, this article proposes new framework which incorporates sub-state entities well an ideational component, highlighting image-building purpose that these serve. Empirically, analysis focuses on evolution Sino-Italian partnership, drawing critical discourse 1294 news articles published part agreement Chinese Italian agencies Xinhua ANSA.