A planned joint space observatory between China and the Latin American global astronomical hub of Chile was not permitted under Chilean law, the Chilean government has said, in comments that highlighted deepening regional geopolitical tensions over security and technology.
The project between a Chinese state astronomical institute and a private Chilean university in Chile’s Atacama desert, aiming to track space objects over the southern skies, drew concerns and warnings from the U.S. that it would also be used to track satellites, thus aiding China’s military space awareness in a region that the U.S. considers vital to homeland defense, as Newsweek reported last December.
Chinese astronomers involved in the project had said that the facility at Cerro Ventarrones would be civilian in nature. Last week, the Chinese Embassy in Santiago, Chile’s capital, said that it was similar to others undertaken by other countries in Chile including by the United States, and accused the U.S. of an “escalation of interference.”
While Chile’s Foreign Ministry stopped short of saying the Ventarrones Astronomical Park was or would be canceled, it noted that the project had not been legal since the local cooperation partner was a private institution.
“If this initiative is focused on astronomical observation, it should be noted that, according to current regulations, private entities are not permitted to enter into international agreements on this matter,” Verónica Arqueros Sáez, a spokesperson for Chile’s Foreign Ministry said in an email to Newsweek on Friday.
“There are two possible courses of action: one is through a state-to-state negotiation and agreement, and the other is to channel the initiative through the University of Chile, since, by law and as a public university, it is authorized to enter into such agreements,” she said.
The ministry also appeared to question the suitability of building the project on government-owned land.
“Additionally, the project was being developed on public land, under the terms of a concession granted by the Ministry of National Assets. Therefore, it is essential to assess whether the project meets the conditions established for granting the concession,” Arqueros Sáez said.
Last month, the Chilean Foreign Ministry announced that the project was “under review,” after the Newsweek investigation revealed that part of the 10-square-mile complex would be off-bounds to Chileans, and that it was not clear exactly what the Chinese side planned to do at the site, which was being built by a Chinese state-owned company that was also involved in construction projects for the Chinese military elsewhere.
The park was announced as a joint initiative between the Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN) and China’s National Astronomic Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC).
China has made no secret of the link between its space interests and political and security goals, saying it will create “effective governance in space.” The Sitian Project, a Chinese state science plan seen by Newsweek, had identified the future Ventarrones Observatory as one of five overseas nodes in a global surveillance system to “fully scan” the skies of the entire Southern and Northern Hemispheres every half an hour to “meet national strategic needs.”
Chile is one of the most coveted locations for space observation on Earth thanks to its clear skies, dry conditions and high altitudes. The United States, European countries, and Japan also have facilities there. Up to 70 percent of the world’s large telescopes are in Chile.
Chilean media Ex-Ante declared the project over: “The closure of the project is interpreted as a response to the signals that the United States has been sending for some time regarding China’s technological advance in Latin American countries,” the news site said, before suggesting that Chile needed a “national space strategy that considers both the scientific value of these facilities and their possible geopolitical and security implications.”
The Universidad Católica del Norte did not immediately respond to Newsweek‘s written request for comment.
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