Rome (AsiaNews) – A Chinese Catholic bishop once told me that China's government is arrogant. If you want their respect, you must be tough with them. As soon as you are soft they think you are weak and not worthy of them.

Too bad that the Italian delegation—led by Italian President Carlo Azelio Ciampi and Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini—that recently visited Beijing had not heard about the Chinese bishop's warning.

In my humble opinion, the soft-touch approach informed this visit, an approach that Chinese leaders like the most. It might not be wrong, but it was definitely one-sided.

Going to Confucius's Temple is a must for official visitors and ordinary tourists alike. It was no different for President Ciampi. But why not also visit the Lama Temple (just 200 metres away) or attend Sunday mass in one of Beijing's Catholic churches?

The Chinese will interpret visiting only the Temple of Confucius as a sign of unconditional approval for the regime and its policies. Since the teachings of the old philosopher—'noble' Confucian values such as obedience and subservience to and respect for established authority— offer them what they need to validate their own policies, they are useful in holding the gates against "spiritual pollution" (i.e. Christianity) coming from the West,

Former President Jiang Zemin and the current leadership have invested billions of dollars in restoring the Confucian heritage. That this interest in religion or in a religious moral code should come from an explicitly atheistic government (which has adopted new, secret anti-religious policies) is, to say least, suspect.

So much zeal comes from the fact that Confucius justified the Emperor's absolute authority which today's rulers claim to have inherited. Unfortunately, to re-confucianise Chinese society means going back to a time when workers' rights did not exist, when petitions against injustice were unheard of and charges of corruption against leaders were nigh impossible.

Had the Italians visited the Lama Temple they would have sent a modest signal of solidarity to oppressed Tibetans. Had they attended mass at Bei Tang (northern) Cathedral or the Nan Tang (southern) Cathedral they would have sent a strong signal to the Chinese leadership that Italy was vigilant about religious freedom and the rights of Catholics and Christians.

The soft-touch approach is also inappropriate if not useless for Italy's business community. In China, Italian investors and businessmen are competing with countless others who are interested in making money in the Middle Kingdom.

China needs less new investors than people who know how reconcile economic development and profit-making with social justice. The country needs people who know how to face the angry masses of the poor and the unemployed, the hundreds of millions of migrants and miners who are not benefiting from a growing gross domestic product.

What China needs are the means to develop a more balanced and ethically acceptable model of development. It is that can allay the fear of a leadership haunted by the spectre of social revolt.

Instead, the West is rushing the crisis by rushing in to take advantage of cheap labour.

Lest we forget, let us also talk about the embargo the European Union imposed on China after the Tiananmen Square massacre, when Chinese soldiers murdered fellow Chinese.

French President Jacques Chirac and former European Union President Romano Prodi have done all they could to have the arms embargo lifted. Now Italy's Foreign Minister Fini has joined the 'let's lift the ban' movement. But what is there in it for China?

When Mr Chirac proposed to lift the ban back in October, Human Rights in China wrote that "the Chinese are ashamed of Chirac" because he would end the embargo without any guarantees human rights would be respected. Should the Chinese people now be ashamed of the Italians?

Some members of the Italian delegation said that ending the arms embargo was Italy's last card in getting China's support in reforming the United Nation Security Council. This soft-touch approach would do better to listen to what the Chinese bishop said: being soft gets you nowhere.

Perhaps, Italy would be more respected if its leaders reminded their Chinese counterparts that a nation's greatness is measured in how it respects human rights and religious freedom.