Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez travelled to Beijing on Tuesday, signing 19 bilateral agreements with China — a dozen of them focused on boosting trade — and launching a formal "strategic dialogue" between the two countries. At a joint press conference with President Xi Jinping, Sánchez urged Europe to engage with China pragmatically, casting Spain as a bridge between Brussels and Beijing in an increasingly fragmented global order. The visit, Sánchez's fourth to China in just over three years, was partly overshadowed at home by a court's decision to prosecute his wife, Begoña Gómez, on corruption-related charges, though the prime minister declined to comment substantively on the matter.