At the time of writing, Spain is now one of the most badly affected countries with Coronavirus. It is registering 25,374 cases and 1375 deaths. This is double that of neighbouring France, even though Spain has a substantially smaller population. Next to Italy, Spain is the worst hotspot for the virus in Europe.
Why might this be?
Consider this from 2012. According to Nielsen, at that point in Spanish history, Chinese immigrants owned more than half of Madrid and Barcelona’s shops (El Mundo, Madrid) This is a huge level of Chinese control of Spanish commercial estate and will have increased since then. Consider these tweets from 2013 and 2014.
In 2016, it was reported that…..
Spanish police say they have dismantled a nationwide network that illegally regularised the working status of Chinese immigrants in Spain. They arrested 57 people in Barcelona, Valencia, San Sebastian and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Chinese nationals illegally living in Spain reportedly paid the ring €8,000 ($8,960; £6,820) each to obtain fake contracts as domestic workers. In return they were given residency permits.
It gets worse. The Economist reports in 2016 that “In Italy and Spain, Chinese banks are implicated in money-laundering”
Moving forward to 2019 we discover that…
According to official figures, there were 200,000 Chinese in Spain.
This does not allow for illegals. Many of these Spanish based Chinese come from mainland China and this is where Spain and Italy have a lethal connection. A significant number of these will have returned to China in December/January, caught the virus and then brought the virus back to Spain with them.
This has now spread across Spain which has become a major killing field for China Coronavirus.
Like Italy, Spain allowed Chinese business to take over large chunks of its retail businesses. It also turned a blind eye to Chinese corruption for some time. The true cost of this is apparent today. It can be counted in corpses.
