Bridge Builders: Belt and Road

Michele Geraci is many things. He's a politician, once nominated as a candidate for the Italian Prime Minister and still deeply connected with the government. He's an economist, a professor of finance, now teaching at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China and New York University in Shanghai. And he's an adopted expert in all things Chinese, speaking fluent Mandarin after having lived in China for 10 years. 

Geraci first visited China in the 1990s as the country's economic transformation was accelerating. "Memories I have were in Shanghai, cranes, highways being built, noise and dust…You could feel that the city was going through a complete change," he tells CGTN.

After enjoying an amazing experience during the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he made up his mind to live and work in China. During that event, he talked to many journalists and athletes who arrived in China with a stereotype of the country being very under-developed. 

"Instead, they saw highways, high rise buildings, a fantastic Bird's Nest – the Olympic infrastructure was first class in the world," Geraci recalls. "They suddenly woke up to the idea that China was coming of age and becoming an economic power."

From 2008 to 2018, Geraci worked in China as a university professor and an economist – and had to immerse himself in the language and culture. He still remembers his first class was taught in Chinese – and he had to review students' homework and final exams in handwritten Chinese. 

"That completely skyrocketed and forced me to learn Chinese."

To gain a deeper understanding of China's economy, in 2019, Geraci began filming documentaries about farmers in remote mountainous areas of Southwest China's Guizhou Province. In fluent Mandarin, he talked to local villagers about their poverty alleviation experiences. 

Geraci believes that to fully understand the Chinese economic development model and the commercial opportunities that this country offers, we first have to understand how the rural economy works. His documentaries deal with the issue of farmers' income and how it has evolved over these 40 years of reforms.

During his 10 years living in China, Geraci witnessed a transportation transformation. "Ten years ago, there were only 100 kilometers of high-speed train. Today there are about 40,000 kilometers," he marvels. "I'm a big fan as an economist of seeing transport be the driver of economic growth and transformation. And this is indeed what we are trying to also do here in Italy."

Asked about being labeled as a contemporary Marco Polo, Geraci laughs. He points out that it took Polo several years to get from Italy to China, but the modern traveler only needs a 10-hour flight. 

However, he realizes that today's complicated international environment requires more Bridge Builders like him to help the mutual communication between China and the West.

He will continue to work in politics and academia. On one hand, he can observe the Chinese economy from an academic perspective, and on the other, he can better help Italy understand China through political resources. 

"I think with the increase of understanding, like we do in finance, you lower the perception of risk," he says. "When you lower the perception of risk, you increase the propensity to do things together – and this is the goal."