El Periódico de España is a daily publication launched on October 12, 2021. It covers politics, economics, international affairs, sports, and entertainment, and was conceived as an alternative to Madrid-centric national dailies, with the willingness to offer a more regionally diverse point of view. The publication features regional editions with local news from across Spain. Initially published in both print and digital formats, the newspaper ceased its print edition on March 28, 2024, and now operates exclusively as a digital outlet.
The Chinese Consulate General in Barcelona (中华人民共和国驻巴塞罗那总领事馆) is China’s only consulate in Spain, opened in Barcelona’s centrally located Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district. Its consular district covers the four provinces of the Catalonia autonomous community: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Operating under the supervision of the Chinese Embassy in Madrid, the consulate provides visa and passport services, consular protection for Chinese nationals, and promotes economic, cultural, and educational ties between China and Catalonia. The Consulate has been actively engaged in outreach activities across Catalonia, including university visits and promotion of trade liberalization policies.
On February 26, 2025, Chinese Ambassador to Spain Yao Jing (姚敬) published an article in the digital newspaper El Periódico de España titled “There Is No Room for Ambiguity in UN General Assembly Resolution 2758.” In the article, he argued that UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 — which transferred China’s seat in the United Nations from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People’s Republic of China in October 1971 — settled Taiwan’s status as part of China. Not surprisingly, Yao’s argument perfectly mirrored the Chinese Communist Party’s official position on the resolution, which holds that Taiwan is “an inalienable part of China’s territory” (中國領土不可分割的一部分), a claim known as the “One China Principle.” This principle asserts that there is only one China, that Taiwan is part of it, and that the PRC is its sole legitimate government. However, the full text of the resolution makes no mention of Taiwan or the Republic of China, nor does it make any determination about its sovereignty — it deals only with the question of who will represent China at the United Nations. Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the China-Spain Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which he said had deepened economic cooperation, trade and green energy, Yao called on Spain to “jointly defend the authority and effectiveness” of the resolution. He urged Spain to actively back the CCP’s interpretation of the 2758 resolution. However, Spain follows the One-China policy regarding Taiwan, meaning it acknowledges Beijing’s position but does not endorse China’s sovereignty over the island.
In August 2025, 26 Spanish journalists and analysts traveled to Beijing for a ten-day training course on China, organized by the China International Communications Group (中國國際傳播集團), a state media organization established in 1949 and directly under the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department. The course was co-sponsored by the China International Development Cooperation Agency (國家國際發展合作署), Beijing’s foreign aid body under the State Council, established in 2018, and by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. Spanish participants included representatives from the digital newspaper El Semanal de La Mancha; the Madrid-based organization Fundación Cátedra China; Mundo Global, a publication affiliated with the same foundation; and El País, one of Spain’s largest daily newspapers. The program included conferences, institutional visits, and cultural exchange activities, and was promoted as fostering “a richer and more nuanced vision of contemporary China among Spanish media professionals,” language that echoes Beijing’s longstanding directive to “tell China’s story well” (講好中國故事). The delegation visited the headquarters of Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television (CCTV), both state-controlled outlets. At the opening ceremony, Guan Zhiyong (關志勇), a deputy director-general within CIDCA’s Department of International Cooperation, described the event as “a concrete action to implement initiatives proposed by President Xi,” linking it to the Action Plan for Strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2025–2028), a bilateral cooperation framework also covering cultural exchanges, adopted during Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s visit to Beijing in April 2025.
On May 12, 2016, He Ping (何平), then editor-in-chief of China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency (新華通訊社), met with José Antonio Vera, then president of Spain’s Agencia EFE (埃菲通訊社), in Madrid. He Ping called for deeper cooperation and said Xinhua should serve as a “bridge” between the two countries’ populations — language characteristic of the CCP’s framing of state media as instruments of public diplomacy rather than news organizations. Vera, who had visited Xinhua the previous year, welcomed the meeting and described the agency’s development as having made a strong impression during that visit. He Ping was in Spain at Agencia EFE’s invitation and also met with representatives of the financial newspaper Mundo Financiero, the foreign affairs outlet El Diplomático, and the regional daily Diario del Norte de Castilla.
On May 13, 2025, El Triangle, a Catalan magazine, published an op-ed by Meng Yuhong (孟宇宏), China’s consul general in Barcelona, titled “The one-China principle cannot be questioned, and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 cannot be challenged.” In the article, the consul wrote that the”One China Principle” (Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China and that the People’s Republic of China is its sole legitimate government) “cannot be questioned.” The piece, part of a recurring opinion column in the outlet by Meng, who has her own bio page, warned that “any attempt” to separate Taiwan would be “harshly responded to by 1.4 billion Chinese,” language consistent with standard PRC rhetoric on the issue. Meng also cited Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s April 2025 visit to Beijing, claiming that Sánchez “reiterated” Spain’s support for the “One China Principle.” This claim does not match the language of the Spanish government in its readout of the visit — nor is it reflected in reporting on the visit by Reuters, the Associated Press, or Euronews.
On January 30, 2009, Spain’s public broadcaster, Spanish Radio and Television Corporation (RTVE) and China Central Television (CCTV) signed a cooperation agreement during former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s (溫家寶) official visit to Spain. Signed by then RTVE president Luis Fernández and the director of CCTV, the agreement covered the exchange of news programming, documentaries, and a range of cultural content, as well as co-productions and training exchanges for professionals from both stations. The broadcasters also committed to organizing themed broadcast weeks: “TVE China Week” and “Spanish Week at CCTV” — and planned musical collaborations between the RTVE Orchestra and Choir and Chinese artists.
On September 5, 2024, Fu Hua (傅華), the president ofChina’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, met with Miguel Ángel Oliver, president of Spain’s state-owned agency Agencia EFE, in Beijing. As the two counterparts met, Fu stressed that the agencies have cooperated since the 1970s, though the earliest documented contact appears to date back to 2015. Fu expressed interest in expanded exchanges in news content, personnel, and new media. Oliver, appointed president of Agencia EFE in December 2023, said the agency “looks forward to deepening cooperation” with Xinhua. During the meeting, Fu also promoted the World Media Summit, a forum launched by Xinhua in 2009 that presents itself as a multilateral platform but was conceived, organized, and funded by Xinhua as a direct initiative of the CCP leadership. The summit convenes international media leaders to discuss industry cooperation, news exchange, and technology — and serves as a channel for the Chinese state’s framing of global media responsibilities and values. At the 2024 edition of the World Media Summit, held in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, in October 2024, Chinese officials used the platform to dismiss Western reporting on Uyghur human rights abuses as “fabricated lies.”
The 25th Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (上海合作組織), convening in Tianjin on August 31–September 1, 2025, adopted the Tianjin Declaration (天津宣言) alongside a dedicated “Statement on Further Deepening International Cooperation in Artificial Intelligence” (上海合作組織成員國元首理事會關於進一步深化人工智能國際合作的聲明) — one of five thematic statements issued at the summit. Attended by more than 20 heads of state including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the summit affirmed that “all countries have equal rights to develop and use artificial intelligence” and committed member states to improving the security, accountability, transparency, and fairness of AI systems. The statement invoked the “Shanghai Spirit” (上海精神) — the SCO’s governing motto emphasizing “mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, and consultation” as a counterweight to what Beijing frames as Western-led hegemonic norms — as the normative foundation for AI cooperation, while pledging to pursue AI that is “open, inclusive, universally beneficial, fair, and for good” (開放、包容、普惠、公平、向善), a formulation echoing Xi’s Global AI Governance Initiative. Member states also committed to developing “trustworthy AI systems” (可信賴的人工智能系統) while “respecting national sovereignty” (尊重國家主權), a phrase that in CCP discourse typically signals state-centered regulatory standards over those that emphasize citizens and other stakeholders. Member states endorsed the Roadmap for the Implementation of the [SCO Member States’ Cooperation Program on Artificial Intelligence Development](http://web.archive.org/web/20251125061238/https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/pc/content/202511/20/content30115908.html)_ (上合組織成員國人工智能領域合作發展規劃實施路線圖), agreed in Chengdu on June 12, 2025, and Xi proposed building a joint AI Application Cooperation Center, extending the proposal first floated at the China-SCO AI Cooperation Forum in Tianjin in May 2025.
