US-China geopolitical rivalry reaches South American telescope projects

US pressure has stalled Chinese telescope projects in Argentina and Chile as South America becomes a new front in the US-China space rivalry

By Emma Bubola & Edward Wong  In the foothills of the Argentine Andes, the enormous Chinese radio telescope sits in one of the world’s premier stargazing locations, untouched by light pollution. It is also on the opposite side of the planet from Beijing, offering China a window on the half of the heavens.

 

But the Chinese telescope at the site, the Cesco observatory in San Juan Province, picks up no signals. After constant US pressure, the Argentine authorities stopped the project’s completion. Lacking key parts, the telescope now sits dismembered.

 

As the US increasingly views Beijing as a rival in space, the stars above South America have become flash points in a geopolitical struggle. The Trump administration says it is enforcing an updated Monroe Doctrine. Last year, Argentina’s neighbour Chile stopped a Chinese astronomical observatory project in the Atacama Desert after strong urging from the US ambassador. And in the case of the Cesco observatory’s Chinese radio telescope project, authorities have held some key, final parts for it at customs for about nine months.

 

 

American officials said the US government had repeatedly expressed concerns with the Argentine authorities about the Chinese telescope, worried it could be used to track US satellites and communicate with Chinese ones.

 

The campaign began during the Biden administration and continued under President Trump. Argentine astronomers, who have spent most of their lives observing stars light years away, have received a crash course in earthly politics.

 

Scientists had looked forward to sharing the telescope with China and other nations. Then they learned that the US effort to check China had reached the deserts of South America. “We are stuck in a political black hole,” said Ana Maria Pacheco, 61, an astronomer.

 

In 2015, as China was expanding its presence across South America, the Chinese military built another facility, a $50 million satellite and space mission control station in Neuquén Province, in Argentina’s Patagonian desert. For China hawks in Washington, that Patagonian base became a symbol of how Argentina was being pulled into China’s orbit. The Trump administration has forged a tight bond with Javier Milei, Argentina’s right-wing president, and aided him with a $20 billion lifeline ahead of key midterm elections last year.

 

US officials say they are aware that dislodging China from Latin America will be hard.  The Chinese Embassy in Buenos Aires said in a statement that the US was “looking for an excuse to contain and suppress China.” They said the project was aimed at promoting scientific progress in both Argentina and China.

 

The US does have a significant astronomical presence in South America, with NASA using several space stations to track satellites. The China Argentina Radio Telescope was a $32 million investment that started about 15 years ago. In 2023, 100 trucks carrying the telescope’s enormous iron components wound their way up narrow mountain roads to the observatory.  

 

In the Biden administration, top White House national security officials and State Department diplomats were aware of the project. In August 2021, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, and Juan Gonzalez, the top White House adviser on Latin America, raised the issue during a visit to Buenos Aires, Gonzalez said.

 

The American officials told Alberto Fernández, then the president of Argentina, that they were concerned about several Chinese projects, including the radio telescope, a port in Ushuaia in the far south, and the base in Neuquén, he said. The Trump administration kept up the pressure. In February 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed “space collaboration” with Gerardo Werthein, Argentina’s foreign minister at the time, according to a State Department summary of the call.

 

That spring, experts from the Sandia lab in Albuquerque, run by the US Department of Energy, traveled to Buenos Aires to brief Argentine officials about the possible risks posed by the Chinese telescope. At the State Department’s urging, the office of the US trade representative included language in a new bilateral trade agreement that tried to limit Argentina’s ability to work with China on space projects. Argentina’s agreement with China to build the telescope expired last summer. Shortly after, customs authorities froze some key parts of the antenna in the port of Buenos Aires.

 

Marcelo Segura, the coordinator of the Chinese radio telescope project at the National University of San Juan, said he and his team tried to persuade American officials that the Chinese telescope would be used only for civilian purposes. Inside the telescope’s basement, chopsticks, cans of oyster sauce and tins of green tea left behind by the Chinese workers remain on tables.

 

A similar situation is evident across the border, in the Atacama Desert in Chile.  There, the authorities carved a road through the lunar landscape to a tall peak designated for a Chinese space observatory. That road now leads to nothing.

 

Bernadette Meehan, the US ambassador to Chile under President Joe Biden, said she raised the observatory with the highest levels of the Chilean administration. “It was very important for the US government that the project was not allowed,” said Meehan. 

Trump-Xi meet in Beijing this week 

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet in Beijing on Thursday for a high-stakes summit that could shape the next stage of rivalry between the world’s two major powers, The New York Times reported. 

Trump and Xi are expected to discuss the war in Iran, trade, Taiwan and other points of contention during a two-day summit.

The leaders last met in October in South Korea, where they agreed to pause a trade war in which the US imposed triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing threatened to throttle the supply of rare earths. 

Trump and Xi are likely to discuss trade, including possible investment in each other’s countries. Washington has been emphasising what analysts call the “Five B’s.” 

These include Chinese purchases of Boeing airplanes, US beef and soybeans, as well as the creation of a board of investment and a board of trade. 

Those two entities would carve out areas of economic exchange between the US and China that do not raise national security concerns.   (Agencies)

---

©2026 The New York Times News Service