About the authors. China's geoeconomic strategy

Clàudia Canals is Director of Avançsa. Previously, she was Lead Economist in the International Markets and Economies Unit at CaixaBank. She is also Associate Professor of International Economics at UPF, the Barcelona School of Management, and ESCI, and a member of the Editorial Board of Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals. She has a PhD in Economics from Columbia University and a Master's in Economics from the same university and from Pompeu Fabra University. Before joining CaixaBank, she worked as a research assistant at Columbia University and at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and as assistant lecturer at Columbia University and Pompeu Fabra University. Her areas of study include international trade and macroeconomics, with particular emphasis on the US and emerging economies (Asia and Latin America). Her research has been published in the Journal of Development Economics and by the Bank of Spain, among other places.

Enrique Fanjul is a Partner at Iberglobal, an internationalisation consultancy. He is Editor of the Iberglobal and Iberchina websites. With nearly 3,000 subscribers in Spain and Latin America, Iberchina is a leading source of information on China. He was previously Commercial Counsellor at the Spanish embassy in China (1987–1989). Between 1993 and 2001 he was president of the Spanish–Chinese Business Committee of the Superior Council of Chambers of Commerce. In 1998 he was appointed Economic Adviser to Tianjin Municipality (PRC). Between 1997 and 1999 he was Governor, representing Spain, of the Asia–Europe Foundation (ASEF). He also held the positions of Commercial Counsellor at the embassies of Spain in Egypt, Canada and the Netherlands. Since the end of 2014 he has been a member of the Scientific Council of the Real Instituto Elcano. In the private sector, he has been Director of the company Técnicas Reunidas (1990–98) and Associate Director of ACE-Cooperación y Proyectos (1998–2003). He is also the author of four books on China.

Xavier Fernández Pons is Associate Professor of International Public Law at the University of Barcelona (UB). He has a BA in Law from the UB and a PhD in Law from the Università degli Studi di Bologna. He also holds a diploma from the Research Centre of the Hague Academy of International Law. He has participated in various research projects funded by Spanish and European institutions, and is the author of numerous publications on public international law, particularly in relation to international economic law. He also teaches on the Master's programme in International Relations at the Institut Barcelona d' Estudis Internacionals (IBEI). He has been visiting lecturer at various Spanish and foreign universities.

Patricia García-Durán is Associate Professor in the Department of Economic History, Institutions and World Economy at the University of Barcelona. She has a degree in Economics from the University of Barcelona, a Master's in European Integration and a PhD in Government from the London School of Economics. As well as being an Associate Researcher at CIDOB, she is also a Researcher at the European Foreign Policy Observatory of the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI). In recent years, her work has focused on EU trade policy and the World Trade Organization. She has published in several specialised journals, including the Journal of European Public Policy and the Journal of World Trade.

Alicia García Herrero is the Chief Economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis and Senior Fellow at the think tank Bruegel. She is also a Member of the Board of the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation (CAPRI) and of the Advisory Board of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS).  Adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, she is a Member of the Council of Advisors on Economic Affairs to the Spanish government. In previous years, Alicia has held the following positions: Chief Economist for Emerging Markets at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Member of the Asian Research Program at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), Head of the International Economy Division of the Bank of Spain, Member of the Counsel to the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, Head of Emerging Economies in the Research Department at Banco Santander, and Economist at the International Monetary Fund. Alicia holds a PhD in Economics from the George Washington University and is very active in international media as well as on social media.

Oscar Guinea is a Senior Economist at ECIPE. He is the author of several studies in the fields of international trade, digital markets, industrial policy and healthcare. He contributes regularly to debates on EU trade policy in newspaper articles and seminars. His research interests include globalisation, technological change, economic dependencies, and European relations with the Mercosur countries. Oscar is the author of a regular column in the Spanish newspaper El País where he writes about EU trade and economic policy. He joined ECIPE in 2018, having worked as an Economic Adviser to the Scottish Government in the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser. Prior to that, he worked for the European Commission (DG ENER) on energy policy. Oscar has experience appraising and assessing regulation as a government economist and private consultant. Oscar holds a MA in European Economics from the College of Europe and a MSc in Development Economics from the University of Sussex. He graduated in Economics from the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Marc Ibáñez Díaz works at the European Commission, where he has been in the Directorates General for Trade, Economic and Financial Affairs and Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. He completed a Master’s in Global Affairs at Yale University with a scholarship from "La Caixa". He has a degree in Economics from the University of Barcelona and a degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of London. Prior to his arrival at Yale, he worked at Sabadell Consulting, an internal strategic consulting unit of Grupo Bancario Sabadell.

Luís Pinheiro de Matos is an Economist in the International Markets and Economies Unit of the Department of Strategic Planning and Research at CaixaBank. He has a PhD in Economics from Cardiff University and a Master's in International Economics and European Studies from the University of Lisbon. He is also Associate Professor of Economics and the Public Sector at Pompeu Fabra University. Before joining CaixaBank, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and the Economy and Health Research Centre (CRES-UPF). His areas of study include public economics and macroeconomics, with an emphasis on international fiscal policy issues and monitoring China and the European Union.