On August 7, 2014, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency and the Observatorio de la Política China signed a cooperation agreement in Madrid, allowing both entities to exchange information and analysis and organize joint seminars. The ceremony was presided over by Zhu Bangzao (朱邦造), China’s ambassador to Spain. According to the Observatory, the agreement also supports the circulation of its publications on Chinese politics, including Jiexi Zhongguo (解析中國), a journal of analysis on China, the Taiwan Weekly political newsletter, and the Annual Report on Chinese Politics.
The Observatorio de la Política China (OPCh) is a research group founded in 2004 by Galician sinologist Xulio Ríos under the Instituto Galego de Análise e Documentación Internacional (IGADI), a Spain-based think tank, and with backing from Casa Asia, a public diplomacy consortium backed by the Spanish government that produces analysis on the Asia-Pacific region. The OPCh says its focus is on Chinese legal reform, human rights, cross-Strait unification, and foreign policy. It publishes a quarterly journal, Jiexi Zhongguo (解析中國), or “Analyzing China,” annual reports on both China and Taiwan, and a weekly Taiwan briefing called Taiwan Hebdo. Notably, the OPCh’s parent institution, IGADI, lists “unification” as one of OPCh’s research areas — a term that also reflects China’s position on Taiwan. In 2024, the group visited Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei, indicating that it seeks to maintain ties with both China and Taiwan. In 2014, OPCh signed a cooperation agreement with the European regional office of Xinhua, the official news agency of the People’s Republic of China. Under the agreement, the two parties pledged to exchange information and analysis, and co-organize seminars. OPCh has also co-run the Minzu Program (Programa Minzu) — an exchange program on governance of ethnic autonomy — with the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (中國社會科學院民族學與人類學研究所), a think tank directly under China’s State Council. It is also a member of the Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network (SIRONET), launched in 2017, a China-led group that claims to serve as a platform for civil society engagement related to Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. In 2021, it signed a cooperation agreement on the promotion and study of the concept of a “Community with Shared Future” with the Institute for a Community with Shared Future (人類命運共同體研究院) at the Communication University of China in Beijing — a research center built around the concept of a “community of shared future for mankind” (人類命運共同體), a core Xi Jinping foreign policy concept. Ríos himself lived and worked in China between 2006 and 2010. His articles in translation have on several occasions made it into China’s [Reference News](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E8%83%A1%E5%88%A9%E5%A5%A5%C2%B7%E9%87%8C%E5%A5%A5%E6%96%AF%22+%22%E5%8F%82%E8%80%83%E6%B6%88%E6%81%AF%22&rlz=1C5CHFAenUS968US968&oq=%22%E8%83%A1%E5%88%A9%E5%A5%A5%C2%B7%E9%87%8C%E5%A5%A5%E6%96%AF%22+%22%E5%8F%82%E8%80%83%E6%B6%88%E6%81%AF%22&gslcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTExMTY5ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) (參考消息), a Xinhua-published newspaper that selectively translates foreign media articles. Since late 2022, the OPCh has been directed by Mexican scholar Raquel Isamara León de la Rosa.
El Semanal de La Mancha is a weekly Spanish-language newspaper based in Castilla-La Mancha, a comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of central Spain comprising the provinces of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Albacete. It was founded in 2009 by a group of local journalists and media professionals as a self-employment cooperative, following the closure of the regional weekly Canfali, which its founders said left a significant information and advertising gap in the La Mancha region, where at the time no printed newspapers with local coverage existed — only radio and television broadcasters and some provincial dailies published out of the city of Ciudad Real. The paper covers local news across more than a dozen municipalities — including Alcázar de San Juan, Tomelloso, and Campo de Criptana — and includes sections on opinion, politics, sports, agricultural news, and community listings, published in a print edition of 48 to 56 pages distributed at newsstands each Friday. In 2011, the newspaper launched its digital edition to reach younger and broader audiences.
El País is a Spanish-language daily newspaper founded on May 4, 1976, during the country’s transition to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco, whose authoritarian regime had controlled Spain’s press for nearly four decades. Based in Madrid and owned by the Prisa media conglomerate, it was the first major Spanish newspaper to operate independently of Franco’s political influence. The paper covers national and international news, politics, economics, science, culture, and sustainable development across editions in Spain, the Americas, and in English. Prisa Group describes it as “the top-ranking Spanish-language media outlet,” with more than 451,000 subscribers and more than 400 journalists working from newsrooms in Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico, and Washington.
Mundo Global is a Spanish-language digital publication under the Spanish group Cátedra China, a nonprofit organization founded in November 2012 in Madrid by Marcelo Muñoz, a veteran Spanish businessman in China. The publication describes itself as a platform for research, opinion pieces, interviews, and analysis on China and its relationship with the world, with particular emphasis on the bilateral link between Spain and China. Its content is primarily written by Cátedra China members and affiliated experts, covering sections including news, culture, economics, sustainability, and traditional Chinese medicine. It also publishes articlescredited to Xinhua, the official state news agency of the People’s Republic of China. The publication distributes a monthly newsletter to subscribers.
Prisa Group (Promotora de Informaciones, S.A.) is a Spanish media conglomerate founded in 1972. The group was initially established to support the launch of the newspaper El País. The group’s major brands include El País, the radio network Cadena SER, the music brand Los 40, the sports daily AS, and the educational publisher Santillana.
The China International Development Cooperation Agency, or CIDCA (國家國際發展合作署), is a deputy ministerial-level agency directly under China’s State Council, formally established on April 18, 2018. The agency was created by merging foreign aid responsibilities previously handled by the Ministry of Commerce with input from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the stated aim of strengthening strategic coordination of aid. CIDCA drafts aid strategy, sets budgets, approves projects, negotiates government-to-government aid agreements, and monitors implementation, though the on-ground execution of projects remains with the other ministries. The agency, for example, manages the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund (南南合作援助基金), established in 2015 and upgraded in 2022 to the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund,, meant to finance development projects in developing countries.
Spanish Radio and Television Corporation (Corporacion de Radio y Television Espanola or RTVE) is Spain’s state-owned public broadcasting corporation, established in 1973 through a merger of Radio Nacional de España (RNE) and Televisión Española (TVE), with its current structure established in 2007. RTVE operates five domestic television channels — including the generalist La 1 and La 2, news channel 24 Horas, children’s channel Clan, and sports channel Teledeporte — alongside radio stations and the streaming platform RTVE Play. It also reaches international audiences through TVE Internacional in over 190 countries.
El Triangle is a Catalan-language weekly newspaper based in Barcelona, founded in January 1990. It describes itself as prioritizing “investigative journalism and analysis.” The weekly newspaper has both a print edition and a bilingual (Catalan and Spanish) website, with an active presence on social media platforms including X and Facebook. The publication displays the logo of the Generalitat de Catalunya’s Department of the Presidency — the Catalan regional government’s executive coordination body — as a supporter.
