The Spanish prime minister met with Xi during his last visit to China in March 2023, and took part in the Boao Forum for Asia – similar to the World Economic Forum held in Davos – in China’s Hainan province.
His trip will also take him to Shanghai on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he will meet local officials and businesses as well as inaugurate a new Cervantes Institute cultural centre.
The prime minister’s arrival in Beijing came shortly after Venezuelan opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia – who insists he, not strongman Nicolas Maduro, is the country’s legitimate president-elect – fled for exile in Spain.
Speaking at a socialist party meeting on Saturday, Sanchez described Gonzalez Urrutia as “a hero who Spain will not abandon”.
Beijing enjoys close ties with Maduro’s government.
Sanchez’s visit also comes against the backdrop of mounting trade tensions between the EU and China.
The European Commission, which oversees the bloc’s trade policy, announced last month that it planned to impose five-year import duties of up to 36 per cent on electric vehicles imported from China.
That same month, Beijing launched a probe into EU subsidies of some dairy products imported into China.
In June, Beijing launched an anti-dumping investigation into pork imports from the bloc, in response to an application submitted by a local trade grouping on behalf of domestic producers.
The Iberian nation is the EU’s largest exporter of pork products to China, selling over 560,000 tonnes to the world’s second-largest economy last year at a total value of €1.2 billion (US$1.3 billion), according to industry body Interporc.
