China’s vice-president visits Spain as mutual courtship blossoms
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Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng arrived in Spain on June 10 for a four-day trip.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MADRID - China’s Vice-President Han Zheng arrived in Spain on June 10 for a four-day trip during which he will meet King Felipe and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a further sign of increasingly close economic and political ties.
Mr Han’s visit is taking place two months after Mr Sanchez visited Beijing for the third time in as many years. There, he sought to woo China’s President Xi Jinping as global trade reels from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs policy.
The Socialist premier has been vying to position Madrid as an interlocutor between China and the European Union, as well as to attract more Chinese investment in advanced technology such as batteries, electric vehicles (EVs) and hydrogen.
In 2024, automaker Stellantis and Chinese battery maker CATL announced plans to build one of Europe’s largest EV battery factories in Spain.
However, not all is idyllic in Spain’s relations with China. Beijing’s anti-dumping inquiry into EU pork launched in 2024 in retaliation for Brussels’ tariffs on Chinese EVs hit Spain, a top exporter, hard.
Mr Sanchez’s last visit to China, however, clinched expanded access for Spanish exports of pork stomach – a product widely consumed in China but not previously authorised.
Mr Han will meet Mr Sanchez on the morning of June 11 in Madrid, Mr Sanchez’s office said, while King Felipe will receive the Chinese official on June 12, according to the royal household’s agenda. The Spanish monarch is also scheduled to visit China later in 2025 to commemorate the signing of a strategic partnership 20 years ago.
After his meetings with Mr Sanchez and Spain’s King, Mr Han is set to travel to Seville to meet Andalusia’s regional leader, Mr Juan Manuel Moreno, who in 2024 secured over €2.5 billion (S$3.7 billion) of Chinese investments in the southern Spanish region.
According to projections by tourism lobby Turespana, the number of visitors to Spain from China is expected to surge by 36 per cent this summer compared with 2024, making Spain the European destination with the biggest growth in tourists from the Asian nation. REUTERS
