The first visit of the Kings of Spain to China in twenty years, which began this Tuesday and will last until Thursday, represents the crowning of the commitment of Pedro Sanchez to get closer politically and economically to Beijing.
The agenda, full of political, economic and cultural meetings at the highest level in order to strengthen bilateral relations, is framed in the clear rapprochement strategy that the Sánchez Government is following with respect to Beijingalso attested by the trips of the president himself, who has visited the country three times in the last three years.
In light of the consideration that China is Spain’s main trading partner in Asia (and the fourth in global terms), the Executive’s efforts to intensify the presence of Spanish exports in China, as well as the access of our companies to the Asian market, seems a priori reasonable.
But the peculiar international situation in which this friendly diplomacy is embedded, characterized by geopolitical tensions between China, the European Union and the United States, calls for caution.
Sánchez’s desire to position our country as China’s privileged partner within the EU is being presented in an excessively unilateral manner, which means distancing himself from the European diplomatic consensus.
It is true that the European Union itself has not ratified a clear position regarding Beijing.
It considers China, on the one hand, an important trading partner. But at the same time it also describes it as a “systemic competitor and rival”, due to unfair Chinese competition in European industry, and the risk that its technology entails for telecommunications and European security.
Precisely in light of this ambiguity, it would be desirable for Spain to agree with the rest of its economic bloc on the common European strategy towards Beijing. instead of freely undertaking an individual and bilateral approach that inevitably arouses suspicion in Brussels.
It is not enough for the Executive to insist on the compatibility of its rapprochement policy with loyalty to the general lines set by Brussels regarding sensitive issues such as the use of Chinese technologies, or the totalitarian regime’s failure to observe Human Rights.
Especially when our country’s relations with China have already been placed under suspicion in the international community.
Firstly, due to the contracts, revealed by EL ESPAÑOL, that the Ministry of the Interior awarded to Huawei to manage the digital storage of judicial wiretaps and other sensitive activities.
This reckless entrustment of confidential data to a company linked to the Chinese Communist Party distances itself from the position of the European Commission, which considers it a high-risk supplier, and which had instructed Member States to restrict or exclude the Chinese company from telecommunications infrastructure to mitigate the associated security risks.
For this reason, it deserved the official complaint from the United States, which warned that These contracts compromise the security of the Atlantic Alliance.
But foreign policy towards China is also viewed with suspicion due to the opaque management of José Luis Rodríguez Zapaterowho still retains a notable influence on the political compass of the Sánchez Government.
He think tank with which the former president is advocating the strengthening of Madrid-Beijing relations appears on the intelligence radar, due to its apparent status as an instrument to enhance the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in the high spheres of power in Spain and Europe. Which has generated notable concern regarding the uncertain extent of Chinese espionage infiltration in our country.
It is necessary to recognize, in any case, the difficult balance that the Government has to face with China.
On the one hand, Spain is driven to pragmatism.
Bilateral trade with China reached almost 53 billion euros last year. Hence, it cannot be criticized that the Government wants to open the Chinese market to Spanish products, attract investment to our country, balance the deficit trade balance and intensify economic flows for sectors that are strategic for Spanish competitiveness.
In support of this pragmatic approach also comes the reconfiguration of the world board, in which China wants to play an important role by attracting other countries to its area of influence, and which has caused a return of realism in international politics.
It is in Spain’s interest to catch up with the change in geopolitical course that the Administration has forced Trumpwhose foreign priority has definitively pivoted towards the Asia-Pacific region.
Nor can our country escape the evidence of China’s unstoppable risewhich is on its way to competing head-to-head with the US for world hegemony. But the solution is not to carelessly surrender to an undemocratic power with pretensions to destabilize the world order, sacrificing the risks to European security on the altar of economic gains whose magnitude has yet to be gauged.
Ultimately, it is in Spain’s interest to cultivate a relationship of understanding with Beijing without letting it drag us along without caution on its side.