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Nayan Seth

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s diplomatic balancing act during his visit to China last month marked a sharp contrast with a European Union grappling with geopolitical upheaval and economic stagnation.
Sanchez pushed for closer ties with Beijing while raising concerns over a persistent bilateral trade deficit and the Ukraine war, an approach that analysts said could serve as a diplomatic template for Brussels amid its fraying relationship with Washington.
According to Wang Hanyi, a research fellow at the Shanghai International Studies University, the Spanish leader “achieved a delicate equilibrium between high-level strategic rhetoric and pragmatic cooperation”.
“The equilibrium provides a viable blueprint for European countries navigating their ties with China,” Wang said.
However, some analysts have voiced scepticism, arguing that Spain’s “compliment sandwich” approach of pairing praise with pointed criticism was a tried-and-tested failed model that would do little to change Beijing’s behaviour on important issues.


Sanchez arrived in China in April following weeks of tense exchanges with Washington over the US-Israel war on Iran.
In a speech at Tsinghua University, he trod carefully, praising China’s rise as a return to “greatness”, while urging Beijing to “open up” its economy to reduce an “unsustainable” trade deficit and “do more” to end the wars in Ukraine and Iran.
Spain’s trade deficit with China expanded to nearly US$50 billion last year, accounting for 74 per cent of the country’s total external deficit. While exports to China increased by 6 per cent, imports rose faster, growing by 11 per cent.
Wang of the Shanghai International Studies University said Sanchez’s approach differed from other Western countries’ use of lecturing in their diplomacy, which “steadily eroded Beijing’s political patience”.
“Regarding trade frictions, Spain expressed its concerns candidly yet strategically framed them as technical challenges to be resolved through dialogue rather than political theatre,” Wang said.
Sanchez’s visit coincided with renewed tensions between Madrid and Washington.
Ties between the US and major European powers like Germany, France and Italy have also been strained over their non-interventionist stance on Iran, but Spain has stood out for both its actions and outspoken criticism of the Donald Trump administration.
After the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28, Spain, a Nato member, declined Washington’s requests to use joint bases for operations against Iran and closed its airspace to participating aircraft, prompting Trump to threaten to “cut off all trade”.
Despite the American president’s repeated warnings, Sanchez stood his ground, criticising the war as “reckless” and “illegal”.
The acrimony has reinforced Spain’s push to diversify its diplomatic and economic partnerships.
That said, Spain’s approach to China is hardly new.

Philippe Le Corre, senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), pointed to French President Emmanuel Macron’s 2018 speech in Xian, where he urged China and Europe to cooperate on the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s global infrastructure programme.
“By definition, these roads can only be shared,” Macron said at the time. “If they are roads, they cannot be one-way.”
During her tenure as German chancellor from 2005 to 2021, Angela Merkel similarly promoted a “win-win” framing of ties with China, backing a “change-through-trade” approach.
“The question is whether it will work or not,” Le Corre said. “I doubt it very much.”
Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific programme at the German Marshall Fund, also expressed scepticism about the “engagement-plus-criticism” model.
“China selectively embraces the praise while ignoring the criticism,” Glaser said.
Even so, Sanchez’s visit reflected a broader European trend of engaging China.
Sanchez is the latest in a string of European leaders to visit Beijing as transatlantic ties have soured.
Since 2025, the list has included Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and former German chancellor Olaf Scholz as well as his successor, Friedrich Merz.
Despite camera-ready smiles, choreographed photo-ops and upbeat vision statements, their meetings failed to resolve a long list of disputes between them.
On the European side, concerns have included China’s reported support for Russia in the Ukraine war, Beijing’s expanding trade surplus, the influx of Chinese industrial goods into European markets, security risks tied to Chinese electric vehicles and the weaponisation of supply chains.


Brussels has also moved to strengthen its economic toolkit to counter Beijing.
In April, it halted EU funding for Chinese-made inverters, citing protection of local manufacturers and concerns over a potential back-door kill switch.
The EU also plans to advance its Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), a legislative proposal that prioritises European-made products in public procurement across strategic sectors.
For its part, Beijing has criticised what it regards as the EU’s protectionist tilt and discrimination against Chinese firms, as the bloc advocates for a Europe that preserves its strategic autonomy free from US pressure.
China has warned of countermeasures if the EU proceeds with the proposed IAA and maintains its funding ban on Chinese-made inverters.
Glaser said she supported Europe’s economic measures and argued that a “softer tone” with China would not yield concessions.
“Without credible economic or regulatory consequences, Beijing has little incentive to adjust its policies on subsidies, market access, overcapacity or geopolitical issues like Ukraine,” she added.
But in Wang’s view, Beijing preferred “evolution through engagement” and not “change through pressure”.
With respect to Ukraine and China-Russia ties, a “lack of understanding” about China’s foreign policy and its interests has prevailed in Europe, according to Jostein Hauge, assistant professor at the University of Cambridge.
“China shares a long border with Russia, and Russia has been a tremendously important economic partner for China,” Hauge said.
“To expect China to take the same line as Europe on Russia shows some degree of ignorance of China’s foreign policy.”
Hauge also stressed that Europe’s challenge was fundamentally structural.
“It’s hard for Europe to come to terms with being an underdog against someone else than the United States,” he said.
“China, when it comes to manufacturing goods and international trade, is emerging as the new superpower … Europe just needs to reckon with and deal with that. They simply don’t have so many cards.”


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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s recent visit to Beijing illustrates ‘delicate equilibrium’, analyst says as others voice scepticism


Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s recent visit to Beijing illustrates ‘delicate equilibrium’, analyst says as others voice scepticism.


Could Spain’s ‘compliment sandwich’ approach to China work for the EU?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s recent visit to Beijing illustrates ‘delicate equilibrium’, analyst says as others voice scepticism

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s recent visit to Beijing illustrates ‘delicate equilibrium’, analyst says as others voice scepticism