Rome (People’s Daily) - China’s medical supplies to the European Union (EU), including surgical masks and testing kits, were delivered to Rome on Monday.

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“We need each other’s support in times of crisis. In January, the EU sent emergency supplies to China. Today, China’s aid will assist Italy in fighting coronavirus," EU Humanitarian Aid said on Twitter.

According to ANSA, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said last week that Italy's acceptance of aid from countries including Russia and China would not lead to new geopolitical alliances. “China helped us a lot in the first phase” of the coronavirus emergency but also many other countries supported us, as well as the Russians, for example Albania, Cuba and Poland.”

Meanwhile, some Western media accused China of turning the pandemic into a geopolitical weapon. Hua Chunying, a spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, responded on Twitter, ‘Will soldiers think of reward amidst a fierce battle? All we're preoccupied with now is saving more lives and providing more assistance.”

According to The Spectator USA edition, a White House source claims that China is making Italy buy masks and coronavirus supplies that it had donated to Beijing just weeks earlier.

The article written by Amber Athey published in the weekly British magazine website on April 4 was proven to be fake news, after Italian journalist Paolo Attivissimo investgated.

“The article used the classic method of surrounding the (unproven) allegation with links to apparently related news items from reliable sources,” Attivissimo pointed out in his blog on Monday.

“China has sent tons of medical aid to Italy so far, including masks, protective overalls and gloves. Besides this real humanitarian aid, China has also sent three teams of medical experts to assist us in fighting COVID-19,” Pierpaolo Sileri, Italy's deputy health minister, told People’s Daily in an exclusive interview.

“Since the beginning of our joint fight against COVID-19, China has provided precious help for us Italians, as well as for other countries such as Belgium, Ethiopia, Namibia and the Philippines. Furthermore, cooperation has been crucial for guiding us in the treatment of our patients in Italy,” Sileri said.

He stressed that at a time in Italy where there is a high death toll because of COVID-19 every day, doctors and health staff are also among the dead. Controversies on the quality of China's aid supplies and speculation on Chinese medical teams’ purpose must be traced back to “realism and pragmatism.”

 “In my opinion, medical supplies sent by China are not only helpful and useful, but also, more importantly, filled our internal production gaps and the lack of response from the EU internal market,” said Sileri.

“During this crisis, the friendship between our people strengthened. Moreover, a very favorable climate has been created for cooperation between China and Italy,” Maurizio Acerbo, an Italian politician and the current Secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party, told People’s Daily in an interview. “The attempts to create tensions and divisions will be more difficult. The pandemic reminds us that humanity is one and that we must work together for a more fair and peaceful world order.”