commentator whose columns appear in consortium news in other publications also in new york we have remy p.a. he is a senior director at america's market intelligence as well as a research associate on political economy and foreign policy at florida international university and in paris we cross the from the he is president of asia center i'd jump in cross rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate this but this program has been inspired by an article you wrote of the consortium news i saw the the white house's reaction to italy joining this initiative the chinese initiative belton road this is coming from the national the national security spokesman mark a has italy is a major goal of global economy and great investment destination no need for italian government to lend legitimacy to china's infrastructure vanity project well this is a lot more than of vanity project and it sounds more that they find it threatening go ahead patrick. it's a very great deal more than a vanity project that's a ridiculous description and i think the larger point peter is