Xi Welcomes Sanchez in China in Bid to Counter Trump’s Escalating Tariffs
On 11 April 2025, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez had a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. 2025 also marks the 20th anniversary of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Spain and China. This is the 3rd visit by Sanchez to China during the last two years and takes place right in the midst of an escalating trade war between US and China.
As Trump slaps tariffs on both friends and foes, the EU seems divided over the approach to take with Trump. With this visit, Spain appears to be siding more with China.
Indeed, China has invested substantially in Spain over the past few years. Last December, CATL announced an FDI of EUR 4.1 billion to form a JV with automaker Stellantis to build a battery gigafactory in Spain. The megadeal follows other investments by Chinese firms Envision and Hygreen Energy to build Green Hydrogen (#GH2) plants in Spain.
Unhappy with the Spain’s slanting toward China, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly declared that Spain is ‘cutting its own throat’ and warned that China is looking to ‘dump goods into EU that it can’t sell to the US.’ Spain Agriculture Minister Luis Planas responded that ‘every country has to defend its own interests.’
It is worth noting that Spain initially supported the EU’s policy to impose tariffs on Chinese Electric Vehicles (EV). Subsequently, it abstained on the vote, signaling a shift in posture.
Spain is also a major supplier of pork products to China, accounting for nearly 20% of Chinese imports. Clearly, China is the main destination market for Spanish pork. Overall, Spain is the 4th largest trading partner of China in EU, behind Germany, France and Italy.
China is also central in supporting Spain’s #EnergyTranstion as Spain needs #PV and #CritcalMinerals which are actually controlled in large part by China. In 2024, Spain managed to generate 56% of its energy mix from renewables.
Without making direct reference to Trump’s tariffs, Xi told Sanchez that: “The two sides should promote the building of a faire and reasonable global governance system, maintain world peace and security, and promote common development and prosperity.” On his part, Sanchez stated: “Trade wars are not good, nobody wins. And this is clear, the world needs both China and the United States to talk.”