ROME—Books about China’s penetration into the Italian market are becoming hot commodities. Take Story of My People, a bestseller by Edoardo Nesi, an entrepreneur turned politician from Prato. Nesi’s narrative is pretty straightforward. Only one generation ago, Prato was a thriving industrial center that prided itself on craftsmanship and quality. But during the last decade, cheaply made goods—produced in China or in Italy by poorly paid Chinese immigrants—saturated the market, making it impossible for Italian companies to compete. And yet Story of My People is yesterday’s world. Today’s world is harder to decipher—and potentially far more sinister.
While China’s own stock markets have taken a huge beating as of late, the country as a collective investor is still on the prowl. Any country with the kind of surplus China regularly posts must, inevitably, ship capital abroad. Italy is where China’s ability to reconcile tactical opportunism with strategic depth can...
