Language policy of Spanish as a foreign language in China: from a communicative perspective to a strategic orientation

As China’s diplomatic and economic engagement with Spanish-speaking countries intensifies, the language policy of Spanish in China has been undergoing a fundamental transformation. Drawing on policy documents, institutional cases and official statistical data, this paper identifies three stages of Spanish language policy in China marked by ‘the communicative era,’ ‘the curricular breakthrough’ and ‘the strategic elevation.’ The transformation across these stages has been propelled by a series of driving forces: top-level design of geopolitical and bilateral relations between China and Spanish-speaking countries, meso-level articulation trialed in the Chinese education system and the end-level pull powered by the talent shortage in the labor market. Meanwhile, structural tensions also persist, mainly embedded in the disconnection of national strategic orientation with regional cognitive bias, the conflict between strategic demand for Spanish and insufficient supporting resources and the gap between policy ideal and practical reality. The findings reveal that China’s foreign language education ecosystem is evolving from an English-centric model toward a more pluralistic architecture where language capacity is aligned with the nation’s geostrategic and geoeconomic priorities. Such a strategic orientation may serve as a pivotal reference framework for future research on strategization of non-English languages in other countries.