Spain risks becoming a bridgehead for China to conquer the European market as subsidised automakers use the country to bypass trade barriers.
The strategy allows Chinese manufacturers to assemble vehicles inside the European Union and avoid tariffs imposed by Brussels, rather than generating a genuine industrial network.
There are already 34 Chinese car brands present in Spain. They accounted for more than 110,000 vehicle registrations by July, capturing nearly 15 per cent of the domestic market.
This figure does not include established European brands that are now operating under Chinese control.
The Chinese state maintains a decisive role in its domestic economy. It controls essential raw materials, dominates battery manufacturing, and provides financial backing for its companies to expand into foreign markets.
Assembly operations
Chinese manufacturers are able to pursue long-term expansion without the labour and bureaucratic constraints faced by European automakers, who are currently closing plants, reducing jobs and dealing with high regulatory costs.
To circumvent European tariffs, Chinese companies are setting up operations to manufacture, assemble or complete vehicles within the EU.
These operations include sites in Figueruelas, Valencia and Barcelona, as well as a project by the Chinese automaker SAIC in Ferrol. SAIC is one of China's state-owned manufacturing companies.
The Spanish government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has viewed the expansion with complicit benevolence. Moncloa, the official residence and workplace of the prime minister, appears to consider Beijing a political counterweight to Washington.
Strategic autonomy
Using Spain to assemble vehicles that are essentially designed, financed and manufactured in China differs from foreign investment that creates employment and true industry.
Treating China as a privileged partner to launch an economic or political challenge to the United States would be a reckless move.
While Spain must maintain trade with China, the current operations threaten to weaken the country's strategic autonomy, its domestic industry and its position within the West.
