Felipe VI has inaugurated his state visit to China with a first speech of very economic content. The King has assured that this trip reflects the desire to “continue strengthening” the relationship between both countries. “Spain has consolidated itself as well as Chinese business collaboration,” he expressed. And, at the same time, it has demanded greater ease for Spanish companies to penetrate the very complicated Chinese market. “If we want to build a solid and lasting economic relationship between Spain and China, we must do so on the basis of mutual trust, openness and legal security,” he claimed during the opening of the Business Forum between Spain and China, held on Tuesday in Chengdu.
The capital of Sichuan province, a city of more than 21 million inhabitants in the southwest of the country, is the initial stop of the On Tuesday afternoon, the monarchs are scheduled to travel to Beijing, where they will be received by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, with a private dinner. On Wednesday, Felipe IV’s official meeting with Xi will take place in the Great Hall of the People, the gigantic building in Tiananmen Square reserved for high-level political meetings.
The trip, which is added to those of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, highlights the growing harmony between Beijing and Madrid in recent years, which has earned Spain the raised eyebrows of some European capitals, and direct criticism from the United States Government. “”, said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in April about the commercial rapprochement between Spain and China.
The trade agreement sealed last week between the United States and China and its Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, gives some oxygen and a point of legitimacy to the course of the Spanish Government: everyone, in the end, must dialogue with China, the second largest economy on the planet.
“We are aware that our main trading partner in the EU is the United States,” said Economy Minister Carlos Body, who is part of the delegation, on Monday in Chengdu. “Hence the effort we have made from the beginning since possible tariff measures by the United States were announced to try to prevent trade barriers from rising.” At the same time, according to Corpus, if the EU intends to be a “main actor” at a time when “geostrategic and geoeconomic rules are being redefined”, it is necessary to “engage in conversations and negotiations” with all the main actors. “And one of them of course has to be China.”
Felipe VI has mentioned this international context of “increasing complexity that affects both geopolitical stability and the performance of our economies.” In this scenario, “Spain, together with the EU, maintains its firm commitment to an international system based on clear rules, transparency and respect for legality,” he expressed.
The economic forum, held at the Gran Hotel Meliá in Chengdu, was attended by representatives of 180 Spanish and 260 Chinese representatives. Early in the morning, the hallways were bustling with businessmen and women milling around, sipping coffee, making small talk. Among them was Alberto Herranz, director of Interporc, the association that represents white pigs. The sector has a lot at stake in this trip. Beijing imposed provisional tariffs on European pork in September in retaliation for EU tariffs on electric cars. He justified the measure within the framework of an investigation antidumpingsomething that the Spanish Government has not accepted well: the measure hit one of the main Spanish export sectors to China, which moves around 1,200 million euros, in a context of theoretical rapprochement between countries, and after Spain withdrew its support for European tariffs on electric cars in 2024.
The pork businessmen see the business meeting, and the presence of the King in China, as an opportunity to promote dialogue, and for Beijing to recalibrate its tariff blow: “It arrives at a key moment for us,” says Herranz, highlighting that the final ruling on the tariffs from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce is scheduled for December, and that Chinese taxes reduce the competitiveness of Spanish companies.
Among the guests was also Pan Jian, co-president of the Chinese battery giant CATL, and one of the companies that leads the forefront of Chinese investments in Spain. “I believe that Spain has great talents, numerous high-level engineering faculties; the Government is very efficient, and [el país] “It has a stable political environment,” Pan highlighted, in a huddle with the press, the reasons why his company has decided to build, together with Stellantis, a battery gigafactory in Zaragoza. The investment is around 4.1 billion euros, and will generate, according to Pan, more than 4,500 premises and “high qualifications and high salaries.”
One of the great challenges for Spain, and for the EU, is to convert the Chinese landing, which is already a reality, into something more than mere assembly plants; ensure that there is a true transfer of knowledge, and quality jobs are generated.
The King has stressed the importance of developing “strategic alliances” in sectors with high added value such as the automotive industry, technological innovation or green energy, “areas in which we share a vision oriented to the future and sustainability.” He has defined Spain as “an open, dynamic economy fully integrated into global value chains.” And he has asked to deepen collaboration so that Chinese projects in Spain “generate added value, develop capabilities, facilitate technology transfer and strengthen Spanish competitiveness.”
Spain, like many countries, has suffered a structural trade imbalance for years with China, the great factory on the planet. Cross trade totaled 52,641 million euros in 2024, but with a very large deficit, of 37,707 million euros, in favor of China. There are around 400 Spanish companies established in China, and almost 300 Chinese companies in Spain, although the accumulated investments from the Asian giant are greater in volume in the European country.
The King has called for the “need to move forward in resolving the difficulties that some of our companies still encounter in the exercise of their activity,” and has asked that steps also be taken “in market opening” in some sectors, such as agri-food. “We are especially excited to be able to promote, together, new opportunities for collaboration that result in the mutual benefit of our companies and the prosperity of our people,” he concluded.
The visit of the Kings also has a cultural aspect, which Queen Letizia was in charge of this Wednesday. While the King held a meeting with regional authorities, she attended a commemorative event for the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Sevillian poet Antonio Machado in the Wangjianglou park, with shady walks under a bush and classical-style pagodas.
The event has been conceived as an intercultural dialogue; Verses have been read by the Spanish writer, who has several translations into Mandarin, and also by Xue Tao, a Chinese poet from the Tang dynasty, one of the periods of greatest artistic and commercial splendor in China. Xue Tao spent part of her life in exile in Chengdu, and is one of the few women from that time whose verses have survived to this day.
“Fearsome gusts rage from afar,” read Dong Fan, local actress and president of the Sichuan People’s Art Theater. He has also recited, in Mandarin, the well-known verses of To a dry elm, by Machado, which sound: “Lǎo yúshù, céng bèi léijí”. This is: “To the old elm, split by lightning.” For those of advanced level: “老榆树,曾被雷击”.
