Kim Jong-un offered a warm and massive welcome to Xi Jinping upon his arrival in Pyongyang this Monday. The Chinese president is on a two-day state visit to North Korea, in an attempt to revitalize relations between the two countries and strengthen his influence over the North Korean leader, after years of distancing and Kim Jong-un’s rapprochement with Vladimir Putin.

The European pharmaceutical sector is losing competitiveness compared to the US and China. This was warned by the president of AstraZeneca in Spain, Laura Colón, during a round table within the framework of the Annual Meeting of the Cercle d'Economia, in Barcelona. This situation, influenced by issues such as excessive regulation and bureaucracy, is combined with the lengthening of life expectancy which, in large part, is due to new drugs. "We must ensure that governments realize the value of drugs and that they are not just a cost," she warned.

At least 90 people died this Friday in a gas explosion that occurred this Friday at the Liushenyu mine, in Shanxi province, in central China. The accident occurred at 7:29 p.m. local time this Friday (12:29 p.m. in Catalonia) at this mining operation, where 247 people were working at the time of the incident and where rescue efforts continue, according to the official Chinese agency Xinhua.

The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in Beijing shows the strength of their alliance and how the two leaders share the vision of a new world order. Putin's official trip to the Chinese capital results in a string of mutual compliments, some agreements, and declarations of friendship.

China boasts of being the center of world diplomacy and accumulates visits from top leaders. After bidding farewell to Donald Trump four days ago, tonight it will welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin. Xi Jinping has had practically no time to put away the red carpet reserved for distinguished visitors as he is already receiving his main ally, who will be in Beijing for two days.

Kind words, promises of economic agreements and warnings about the risk of a conflict over Taiwan summarize the first face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the two world powers. Xi Jinping and Donald Trump have striven to show détente and cordiality in their first meeting in Beijing after almost a decade. From gestures they moved to words, and while Trump assured that Xi Jinping is a great leader, the Chinese president defended that both countries should be partners and not rivals.

Donald Trump has landed in Beijing accompanied by a large business entourage and with the message that he wants China to open its large market to American companies. He was received at the foot of the runway by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, and a small welcome ceremony with 300 children waving flags and a military band. Trump arrived in Beijing at 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday. The official agenda begins on Thursday and includes a reception ceremony, a bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping, a state banquet, and a visit to the Temple of Heaven, one of the emblematic monuments of the capital. On Friday, the two leaders will meet again for a working breakfast before concluding the visit.

Xi Jinping rolls out the red carpet to receive Donald Trump this week on a state visit marked by the Iran crisis and overshadowed by trade tensions and rivalry between the two countries. The leaders of the world's two largest powers will hold talks in Beijing with low expectations of reaching significant agreements, but with the need to stabilize relations. In addition to the energy crisis caused by the war against Iran, the two leaders have other fronts open, such as technological competition, trade barriers, or the sale of arms to Taiwan.

The European Union has a problem with innovation. Of the fifty largest global technology companies, only four are European. The sector that leads the European economy is not software, nor artificial intelligence, but the automotive industry. While the EU has stagnated technologically in recent decades, China has gone from being an economy that needed to absorb foreign innovation to being the power that leads in areas such as green technologies. Seeing this process of divergence, could the European Union learn something from China in technological innovation?The big challenge for the EU is how to create large technology companies. Many startups and SMEs flourish on the European continent. But when they want to scale up and become giants, they encounter several barriers. Often the problem is financing: many nascent European companies move to the United States to grow, as there is a strong venture capital market there. The EU believes, in this regard, that it should develop a strong private venture capital in the American style to be able to compete in the league of the big ones.In other countries, however, the state has played the central innovative role. In China, the national government and local governments have created public venture capital entities to finance risky, cutting-edge, and ambitious technological projects – those that tend to generate reluctance in the private sector. In South Korea or Japan, governments have also played a similar role. The state has positioned itself not only as a financier but as the first buyer and user of emerging technologies, acting as a driving force. It has also played the role of bringing together the technological and military sectors, co-financing dual-use civil-military technologies.Large-scale bets

In China –but also in the United States– there is a cult of large scale that generates discomfort in Europe. We often prefer small businesses over giant ones. In the technological world, however, scale is decisive: as China does, the EU should focus its investment on large innovative projects, with a high level of risk, disruption, and technological advancement. Perhaps many of them will fail. But to create large European giants we must be willing to play a long-term game, where the stakes, the risks, and the profits are on a large scale.On the other hand, the EU should increase its commercial soul. The European continent has good results in research. The problem we usually have is when we want to bring university innovation to the market. The Chinese are experts in this: for decades, they have been able to take technologies created by others, incorporate slight improvements, mass-produce them, and bring them to market at competitive prices. In fields like quantum and industrial AI applications, perhaps Europe would still have opportunities to create a market for itself.Finally, the EU must commit to science and technology with strategies spanning decades, in the long term, while maintaining sufficient flexibility and iteration in the face of technological changes. Again: countries like China, Japan, or Korea are examples of positive strategies. We do not need to be a Communist Party regime or an economic giant to apply the positive lessons that have worked in China.

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While the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to maritime traffic and Iran and the United States continue to negotiate under the threat of resuming armed attacks, the highest officials of Iranian and Chinese diplomacy have met in Beijing. The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, traveled to Beijing to meet, this Wednesday, with his counterpart, Wang Yi. It was the first personal meeting since the conflict began. Wang Yi acknowledged the close economic and political ties with Iran and insisted on calling the war "illegitimate". The Chinese diplomat once again called for a comprehensive ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. He also reiterated China's opposition to sanctions.Wang positioned himself in favor of a solution involving the region's actors. He assured that the Gulf and Middle Eastern countries "should take the reins of their future" and that China supports "the establishment of a regional peace and security framework led by the countries of the region". Since the beginning of the conflict, the Chinese position has been to defend the need to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to restore world trade. The closure of this route directly affects Chinese interests. China used to buy 80% of Iranian oil, and 45% of the gas and oil imported by the Asian giant circulates through this route.The meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister comes a week before President Trump's visit to Beijing. A trip scheduled for May 14 and 15, which China has not yet officially confirmed.The war has become the focus of talks that were initially intended to restore trade relations. Donald Trump has requested Xi Jinping's cooperation to reach an agreement with Iran. At the beginning of the week, it was the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, who urged China to influence Iran to reopen Hormuz. And Marco Rubio also joined the pressure in statements to the press from Washington. A whole battery of pressures reminiscent of those deployed by the European Union for China to influence Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine, without success.Beijing's ambiguity

So far, China has limited itself to advocating for diplomatic solutions to conflicts, without getting involved. In the case of Iran, Chinese economic interests are clearer, but it remains to be seen whether China will do anything more than limit itself to statements, as in the case of Ukraine. Unlike the United States, accustomed to using military force, China bases its influence on trade. China has no allies, it has commercial partners. It limits itself to defending its interests under the axiom of not interfering in the internal affairs of its partners. The Asian giant has woven a network of commercial interests and investments to guarantee access to ports and trade routes. Routes and agreements that serve to supply itself with raw materials and to deliver its exports. For example, in these times of energy crisis, China uses its reserves to supply fuel to Southeast Asian countries, highly dependent on the Persian Gulf, and thus strengthen alliances.Officially, it is difficult for China to do anything more than make statements in defense of truces and negotiations. But it is very possible that it is supplying arms to Iran, as the United States has denounced. In the case of Russia, there is no doubt that its economic support helps Putin's regime to survive the sanctions, and there are suspicions that it exports dual-use material, civilian, but which can be used for military purposes.In the process of militarization

But in addition to the lack of will, Beijing also lacks the military capacity to confront the United States. The Chinese army has undergone a radical modernization, but it has not yet reached the level of the North American one. China currently only has 3 aircraft carriers compared to the United States' 11, and only has one military base outside its territory. But perhaps the most important thing is that the Chinese army has no experience; it has not participated in real war missions.Trump's erratic position weakens his figure and also that of the United States as a reliable ally on the international stage. This conjuncture facilitates Xi Jinping positioning himself as a stable leader and defender of international order, but it remains to be seen if China will truly benefit from the situation.In a short time, it has seen how important allies, Venezuela or Iran, for example, have been attacked and destabilized by the United States. And surely the next on the list will be Cuba. China's role as a leader of the Global South could deteriorate if it is perceived that being an ally of the Asian giant does not translate into protection against possible aggressions.

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The torrent of images from begins, and its wealth of ideas sweeps everything away. Excessive, hallucinatory, and ambitious as few recent works are, the new film by Chinese director Bi Gan shakes up many preconceived notions about what current cinema should be. For him, films must be narratively daring, visually lush, and thematically profound. In this specific case, we are talking about a fantasy tale that revisits more than a century of China's history based on how each period has been represented in cinema... or based on how those who lived through those episodes would have wished they actually were. Reality and desire sharing the screen.The overflowing narrative of

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A few days ago, the chairperson of the Kuomintang (KMT), Cheng Li-wun, traveled to Beijing and met with Xi Jinping. It had been ten years since the leaders of the KMT – the Chinese nationalist party – and the Communist Party of China had met. The visit has not been without controversy. The PDP, the pro-independence party that now governs Taiwan, criticized Cheng's visit, almost describing her as an ally of Beijing in its attempt to take control of the island.Cheng's gamble is risky. The majority of Taiwan's population feels more Taiwanese than Chinese, including many KMT voters. Although there are some voters who would like to have more ties with China, almost none want to transition to a political regime like the one in Beijing. Many would like the situation to be similar to that of recent decades, that is, an ambiguous "statu quo" situation where Taiwan can continue to prosper economically and socially, without feasible threats of a political or military takeover by Beijing.But the international context does not help. China has more and more power and the United States – especially under Trump – seem increasingly less committed to the island's future. The PDP government considers that doubling down on the United States – also with Japan and Western countries – and reducing ties with Beijing is the best mechanism to protect Taiwan. The KMT, on the other hand, is more skeptical of Washington and believes that, precisely, re-establishing ties with the Communist Party is what can calm the waters and guarantee future peace.The figure of Cheng, moreover, generates division within the KMT itself. Although there is a minority sector of the party that still bets on reunification with mainland China, the majority seeks a pragmatic point between establishing cordial relations with Beijing and at the same time increasing the island's military capacity. Cheng's rhetoric is shocking for the level of openness and defense of Beijing's supposed good intentions. Many say that her discourse moves away from the mainstream of the island and this will make her fall soon. But in the current tense and turbulent international panorama, an aggressive change of tactics can sometimes bring unsuspected benefits.A key match

The KMT is, probably, one of the parties with the worst international image worldwide. In the West, it is now seen as the pro-Beijing party that makes it difficult for the island to arm itself strongly and align itself with the United States. In China, despite current cordial relations, it is historically presented as the corrupt, militaristic, and bourgeois party that the communists defeated – even though the KMT was the one that stopped the Japanese invasion during World War II. Among progressive voices, its authoritarian past under the figure of Chiang Kai-shek is remembered.But the KMT was also the one that made the institutional changes to transform Taiwan into a prosperous economy and a democratic country. It is a party that has undergone profound transformations in different directions over the years. It still represents a more conservative and pragmatic electorate that is by no means small on the island. It continues and will continue to play a key role in Taiwan's future.

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In the summer of 2025, millions of Taiwanese watched on television as the Chinese army blockaded the island and how this caused panic. Hundreds of people looted supermarkets, the internet stopped working, and a few warplanes crossed the sky over the capital. It was fiction. The series Zero day attack broke audience records while generating a deep debate in Taiwanese society: for the first time, fiction imagined an attack by the People's Republic of China. But the possibility of this attack is not fiction, according to a report recently made public by the United States government, in which they state that they have indications of China's intention to invade Taiwan in 2027.

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In the regal auditorium of Tsinghua University, one of China's most prestigious, the Spanish Prime Minister has initiated the official visit to the Asian giant with a clear statement of intent in the form of a speech. Pedro Sánchez has advocated for strengthening multilateralism and, at the same time, reforming it to have a more representative and democratic UN Security Council that gives more power to southern countries. Although he has acknowledged China's efforts in defending international law, he has assigned it homework, for example, to get involved in ceasing conflicts in Lebanon, Iran, Gaza, the West Bank, and also in Ukraine. He has not forgotten about the economy and has demanded more balanced relations, recalling the large trade deficit with the Asian giant: "We need China to open up so that Europe does not have to close itself off".

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The visit that Pedro Sánchez is making starting this Monday to China is not like the previous ones. Not so much for the magnitude of the agreements that may derive from it nor because it is an exceptional visit –it is the fourth time he has been there in the last three years–, but for the treatment that the Chinese authorities will give him. It is an "official" trip, qualified as such in diplomatic terms, in which his wife, Begoña Gómez, has been invited and in which a banquet is being organized following his visit to the Great Hall of the People, where the most important diplomatic events take place. Ceremony is not trivial in Chinese culture: for Beijing, forms and staging are very important. The banquet will be the culmination of a visit that will begin on Monday with a conference at Tsinghua University and a visit to the tech company Xiaomi and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and will continue on Tuesday with a meeting –and the banquet– at the highest level between Xi Jinping and Pedro Sánchez. In the evening, there will still be another meal in the same format with the Prime Minister, Li Qiang.

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In the school in Girona that I attended as a child, Carol Law Lee, of Chinese origin, was for a long time the only girl with parents from abroad. “I felt exotic. The older students would touch my hair and say it looked like threads!”, she recalls. Years later, however, another Chinese girl arrived, whom she “felt close to” and “was very eager to meet”.

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Jordi Muntañola (Barcelona, 1978) has been the CEO of Salvat laboratories for a year. This molecular biologist from Esteve, who also held positions of responsibility at the Werfen group, has placed Salvat in the club of 100 million in turnover 12 months after initiating a major transformation to enhance the values and characteristics of a family-owned pharmaceutical company with over 70 years of history; a portfolio of its own products, with brands like the antiseptic Cristalmina, and a foundation to which it dedicates a portion of its profits. And, moreover, with great prospects, with the acceleration of the third-party production business and the launch during the first half of this year of a new product in the USA, with the prospect of marketing another next year and another in China. Always accompanied by a local partner, the formula it uses for internationalization, which has led it to be present in more than 60 countries. And without ruling out possible acquisitions, a path that the company may incorporate into the 2027-2030 strategic plan, which it expects to have ready this summer.

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In 2019, a Chinese developer created a GitHub repository, the most important social network for programmers worldwide, called “996.ICU”. The codename denounced the exploitative labor conditions of Chinese tech companies: if you work 996, from 9 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week, you’ll end up in the ICU. The repository went viral, with more and more Chinese programmers supporting it and creating blacklists of companies that applied the 996, such as Alibaba, Huawei, or Tencent. Chinese tech companies and the government were alerted, but the wave was difficult to stop: GitHub, a large open-source library, is the only major Western social network that is not censored in China. The 996 became a major national debate. Two years later, this spontaneous labor movement managed to get the Chinese government and courts to declare these working conditions illegal.In recent years, there has been much talk about open Chinese AI models. The most famous was Deepseek, but Qwen, Manus, or Kimi are also well-known in the programming community. Unlike the closed and private AI of American tech companies, Chinese companies have opted for open, free, and highly modifiable models. This has made them popular among startups or developing countries. Right now, open Chinese AI models are the only ones that can rival American ones. They have become one of China's most cutting-edge technological sectors, and a great source of national pride.China's technological success is often explained through state subsidies or long-term plans of the Communist Party. But, as analyst Kevin Xu explains, the Chinese AI models that are now so successful have not emerged from government initiatives, but from a spontaneous movement from below: the social mass of Chinese open-source programmers who launched the campaign against 996 is the same one that has created the AI models that fascinate the world.

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Of all the Persian Gulf monarchies that have suffered attacks from Iran since Washington initiated the war, Saudi Arabia is in the most confusing position, immersed in a genuine strategic dilemma. Among other reasons, because it is the largest and most powerful country in the region, the one with the oldest and closest ties to the United States, but the one which, along with Oman, has suffered least from the wrath of the ayatollah regime. At least, until now. Therefore, contradictory news has been published about how and when Riyadh would like the war to end, and what its future security strategy might be, given the failure of the current one.

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The Government has placed Asia at the top of its international priorities list. So much so that the president, Salvador Illa, made his first two intercontinental trips there, first to Japan and Korea, and then to China. This week, the Minister of European Union and External Action, Jaume Duch, has returned to the Asian giant for the second time to continue working hard and strengthen the ties between Catalonia and the country, while awaiting the finalization of procedures to open the new delegation of the Generalitat in Beijing. This Friday, the minister signed, on behalf of the Government, two memorandums of understanding with the leading provinces of Jiangsu and Hainan, where he also participated in the Boao Forum, the Asian Davos.

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