CHINA OFFERS MAXIMUM SECURITY FOR XI JINPING'S VISIT TO GRAN CANARIA

China gives maximum security to its president's visit, Xi Jinpingin Gran Canaria, in November 2024.

The president will stop at Gando airport after an intense Latin American agenda in which Brazil will be the main focus of raw material import agreements with the Asian giant.

Jinping will remain on the island for 24 hours with three planes of the Eastern Armed Forces. The large delegation plans to spend the night in the capital of Gran Canaria and a visit to the port of La Luz, base of the Cnfc fishing fleet, is not excluded.

The Government Delegate, Anselme Pestanainformed the Chinese embassy in Madrid and the Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, within the security commission that will ensure the physical integrity of Jinping and most of his government.

The president's stay will benefit from surveillance and prevention coverage such as has never been seen in the archipelago, with several hundred agents given the particular geopolitical situation, due above all to China's role as mediator in conflicts such as Ukraine and the Middle East.

Xi Jingping's arrival in Gran Canaria will be one of the major international events in Spain. A priori, an implantation of the president on the island is not excluded, Pedro Sanchezfor the official reception in Jinping. The trip would even overlap, in a few weeks, the stopover that the Pope Francis in Gran Canaria on the way to Argentina, according to the invitation launched by the head of the regional Executive, Fernando Clavijo.

China has been trading with the Canary Islands for decades, especially in the fishing sector and as a pivotal territory towards the African coast. In recent years, Beijing has tipped the balance towards countries such as Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal or Conakry, whose fishing, mining and hydrocarbon permits cover the needs of the Chinese economy.

Boosting consumption

Chinese investors hope that with trips like the one to Brazil, “new ideas will emerge to solve one of the country's most pressing economic problems: how to get families to spend more,” according to a report published in mid-August by the newspaper. The Financial Times.

The government has announced a series of structural measures to encourage the country's reluctant consumers. The latest is a 20-step formula to support sectors ranging from esports and nursing to cruise ship construction.

But experts are calling on China to do more to boost consumption, especially after economic growth slowed sharply in the second quarter as lower household spending hit industrial performance.

The latest figures show that dollar export growth eased slightly in July to 7% on an annualised basis, while imports rose 7.2% on industrial demand for foreign machinery and technology components.

China’s economic tremors have raised questions about whether weak demand is cyclical — families are still recovering from the housing bubble and the pandemic — or whether the problem runs deeper.

China is moving from an economy that is “easy to heat up, hard to cool down” to one that is “easy to cool down, hard to heat up,” Yiping Huang, a prominent economist and central bank adviser, told the prestigious British newspaper. “Economic development has entered a new phase where total demand is not as strong.”

President Xi Jinping said in July that his priority was to increase productivity, including through investment in high-tech and innovation, to achieve his goal of doubling per capita income by 2035.

The trend has plunged the Chinese economy into its longest deflationary cycle since the 1990s. Real growth rose to 4.7% in the second quarter, but nominal GDP growth fell below 4%.

Jinping visited Tenerife in November 2019, under the regional mandate of Angel Victor Torres.

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