A lot assigned 18 years ago to build the new Spanish embassy in China is still empty | Spain
China is a very important country for Spain, both from the political and economic point of view, which President Pedro Sánchez will travel this week For the third time in just two years, but the Spanish representation in Beijing is not up to the importance attributed to bilateral relations with the Asian giant. The Embassy of Spain in the Chinese capital is a building with more than half a century that, in addition, has been small. This obliges, according to diplomatic sources, to maintain the different dependencies of the Spanish representation dispersed throughout the city in real estate for which you have to pay for rental rentals. That is the case of the commercial office, tourism or education, defense and agriculture, in addition to the Consulate General.
The idea of grouping all these offices in a single, modern and functional building, as other European countries have done, comes from afar. The Spanish State has for that purpose with a lot of about 10,000 square meters in the center of Beijing, near the current Foreign Ministry. The assignment of the plot, which struggled other countries, was sealed in July 2007, on the occasion of the visit that kings Don Juan Carlos and Mrs. Sofía made to Chinaaccompanied by the then Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos. Chinese authorities do not allow the purchase of land by foreigners, so a 70 -year rental was agreed. In return, the Spanish State gave a lot in the Madrid neighborhood of La Moraleja for the residence of the Chinese ambassador.
However, 18 years have passed since that agreement and a single brick of what should be the brand new Embassy of Spain in Beijing has not yet been raised. First was the economic crisis of 2008, which left in the bones the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then, The Covid pandemia, That China fought with very severe confinements of the population in 2021, a contest of ideas for the construction of the new embassy was prepared, but never summoned. Organizational problems, and not only economic, would be behind the delay, according to the same sources. The money paid in these years for the rental of the properties occupied by the different Spanish offices in Beijing would have had the construction of the new embassy, they add.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has assured El País that last year “a preliminary study was carried out for the construction of the units of a new Foreign Ministry, Consulate General, Sector Councils and Residence” of the Spanish Ambassador to Beijing. Sánchez’s new trip to China is presented as an occasion to give a definitive impulse to a project that would not only allow Spain to have a new diplomatic headquarters in the second economic power of the world, but also save money.
