Taking the long-term view

On the last day of his second visit to China in just over a year, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the member states of the European Union as well as the European Commission needed to reconsider tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, emphatically adding that "we do not need a trade war", and he stressed how vital it is to "build bridges" to reach a compromise.

His remarks in a news briefing came after he visited a Spanish technology business cluster in the city of Kunshan, Jiangsu province, home to an industrial park where many foreign companies have their production plants. Later on Sept 11, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz via his spokesman expressed support for Sanchez's most recent statement.

At the beginning of Sanchez's four-day visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping stated that China and Spain are both countries with a sense of responsibility and mission, and both advocate multilateralism and free trade. The declaration corresponds to a dialogue in which the visitor defined China and Europe as "two regions that play a central role in the world".

The European Commission has reacted this week by stating that "the European Commission's focus, at the present time, is fulfilling the next procedural steps in our investigation (and) remaining open to finding a negotiated solution with the Chinese authorities".The European Parliament's final vote on the implementation of the tariffs will be held in October or in November.

Madrid is convinced that despite the differences that may exist in certain key commercial areas, there is much common ground between the two sides.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that the two leaders are committed to maintaining a regular dialogue at the highest level as Madrid and Beijing prepare an agenda for next year. 2025 will mark the 20th year since the signing of the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between the two countries.

The Spanish government stressed the importance of the eight agreements signed during Sanchez's official visit, encompassing both institutions and private entities in the fields of trade and investment, culture and education, as well as science and green development. Particularly interesting is a memorandum of understanding signed with Chinese company Envision that will see it invest $1 billion to develop an electrolyzer production plant in Spain to produce green hydrogen.

Sanchez also presided over the inauguration of a Cervantes Institute in Shanghai, making Spain the only European country with two recognized cultural centers in China. As the Spanish leader pointed out in his speech at the opening ceremony, Mandarin and Spanish are the two languages with the world's largest number of native speakers and are two of United Nations' six working languages.

The China-Spain Business Forum was also held during Sanchez's visit, attracting over 700 Chinese and Spanish entrepreneurs, from industries such as energy, logistics, finance, trade, machinery and aerospace.

It is not a minor detail that the week leading up to Sanchez's visit to China was preceded by an agreement reflecting the extraordinary possibilities of the bilateral ties connecting people. Real Madrid football club, the world's most famous and popular, and Hisense, Chinese global home appliance and consumer electronics company, announced a partnership agreement under which the latter becomes the club's official sponsor for the next three years in Spain, Africa and the Middle East. Football is the game per excellence uniting people of all creeds around the planet. To mark the agreement, both sides announced the co-launching of a limited edition 100-inch TV described as having intense picture quality and immersive sound to enhance the experience "for fans around the world".

On the other side, from a very down to earth perspective, despite known geopolitical tensions in the background, China continues to be a magnet for entrepreneurs globally. That is why the so-called Harvard Group, headed by an IESE Business School professor in Barcelona, and Pedro Nueno, co-founder of the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, chose to meet this summer in Shenzhen, the world's top high-tech city. Barcelona's leading newspaper La Vanguardia highlighted during the July gathering included representatives of the telecommunications company Huawei, NEV manufacturer BYD, and medical equipment producer Mindray, as well as Meituan, the online sales platform for all kinds of products that delivers with drones and autonomous ground vehicles.

On its part, the EU Chamber of Commerce in its annual position paper on China, released in early September, recognizes a more complex scenario than in the past regarding business confidence. However, there is relative optimism among European businesses for the long term, which still see the potential of the Chinese market, as the complex issues "are very much in the near term", as the Chamber's president Jens Eskelund said to the South China Morning Post. The European business community cherishes the hope that the visa-free process might be expanded from the present 11 EU countries to all 27 members in the near future.

Contacts at the highest level are still taking place. Sanchez's meeting with the Chinese leader took place on the same day as President Xi received Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Sept 9, just some weeks after the Chinese president hosted Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Beijing, and four months after his visit to France, Hungary and Serbia. Such meetings illuminate a path of common sense transcending adverse geopolitical factors.

The author is director of the Dialogue with China Project and former global expert in the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.