María Dolores de Cospedal meets with Vice-Chairman of Chinese Central Military Commission

General Changlong is leading a delegation from the Chinese Armed Forces on a working visit to Spain. Within the framework of this visit, he has also been received by the Secretary-General for Defence Policy, Admiral Juan Francisco Martínez Núñez, and has visited the Operations Command Centre, the headquarters of which is located at the Retamares Base (Pozuelo de Alarcón), and the "Guadarrama" XII Brigade at the El Goloso Base (Madrid).

The army of the People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China has the second-largest army in the world, with over two million military personnel, and has the second-largest military budget (approximately 140 billion euros, representing close on 1.3% of national GDP) behind only the United States. Its Armed Forces are currently undergoing a far-reaching transformation process.

China lends great importance to peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the United Nations, for which 2,509 Chinese military and non-military personnel are taking part in ten missions, including UNIFIL (Lebanon). To the latter, in which Spain has also been taking part since 2006, China contributes 418 military personnel.