Sánchez returns to China on 9 and 10 September with a busy economic agenda

Luis Ayllón The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will make a new trip to China on 9 and 10 September, with a strong economic agenda, government sources told The Diplomat. Sánchez already made a trip to China a year and a half ago, in March 2023, and had the opportunity to meet with the country's main authorities, President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Li Qiang and the president of the National People's Congress, Zhao Leji. The agenda now also includes a visit to Xi Jinping on the afternoon of the 9th and a meeting followed by lunch with Premier Li Qiang, who has just been in Moscow to sign an investment cooperation agreement between China and Russia and meet with Vladimir Putin. Beyond international political issues, the President of the Government's talks with the Chinese authorities will most likely include the tensions between Beijing and Brussels over the European Commission's imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Spain could be affected by retaliation from the Chinese government, which has opened an investigation to decide whether to impose tariffs on the European pork sector, as Spain is one of the main exporters of pork to China within the European Union. During his visit, Sánchez will also inaugurate the Spain-China Forum, which has not met since 2015, when it was held in our country, and which will include different round tables on collaboration at the municipal level, innovation, and scientific and cultural issues. In any case, the agenda of the President of the Government will have a marked economic profile, since, according to sources, he is expected to attend the closing of the Spanish-Chinese Business Advisory Council, a body that was created in November 2018, during Xi Jingping's state visit to Spain, with the aim of strengthening economic and trade relations between the two countries. The meeting of this council, which will be chaired, on the Spanish side, by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Enterprise, Carlos Cuerpo, will be attended by senior executives from around twenty large Chinese companies and as many Spanish companies with interests in Spain or China, respectively. In March of this year, the members of the Council held a meeting with the Chinese ambassador in Madrid, Yao Jing, at the CEOE headquarters. But this will not be the only economic meeting that Pedro Sánchez will attend during his visit to China. On the 10th, he is expected to take part in a China-Spain business meeting in Shanghai, organised by CEOE, together with the Secretary of State for Trade and ICEX, which is expected to be attended by representatives of numerous companies from the two countries. Finally, the agenda of the Chief Executive includes the opening of the Cervantes Institute in Shanghai, which joins the one that has been operating in Beijing since 2006. Having this new centre was a long-standing Spanish aspiration, to which the Chinese authorities gave their approval during Sánchez's previous visit to the country, in March 2023.

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