Cooperation has much more to offer than hostility

The mood I felt during my visit to Spain and Portugal the past week was quite different from the months covering the contentious China-US trade conflict before I was posted to Brussels in early November. The message from European officials and pundits is largely centered on how to expand and elevate cooperation with China, just as the Chinese often say: make a bigger cake so everyone has a bigger slice.

A Spanish national who has advised his government was excited about the fastgrowing number of Chinese tourists visiting Spain as well as the many Chinese students studying in Spanish universities in recent years. He also bet that Spanish wine - good quality and reasonably priced - should have a promising market in China.

Since most Chinese tourists visiting Spain arrive not in summer, but during China's National Day holiday week in early October and Spring Festival holiday, which falls either in late January or February, they have helped make the once "slow tourism season" not that slow anymore.