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My Take | Some amusing ‘Red Scare’ tales US tells about China

  • A space station in Argentina, the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and a naval base in Djibouti are just some examples of half-truths and scaremongering told about “the China threat”

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Located in the south of Sri Lanka, the Hambantota Port is one of the signature projects of Belt and Road cooperation between China and Sri Lanka. Photo: Xinhua

Last month, a team from multiple agencies of the government of far-right President Javier Milei carried out an inspection of China’s deep space station and observatory in the Neuquén province.

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Located in the famous Patagonian desert of Argentina, the facility was being inspected reportedly as part of Milei’s efforts to make sure the Chinese facility wasn’t used for spying, as Washington has repeatedly warned, rather than for Beijing’s space programme, especially its moon-focused missions.

Chinese space station in Argentina

With its deep space antenna, the Espacio Lejano station’s satellite-tracking and signals-monitoring systems were key to the success of the Chang’e 4 mission to the far side of the moon, which never faces the Earth, in 2018-19.

It’s expected to play a similarly important role in the Chang’e 6 mission – which was launched on Friday – to collect and return samples for the first time from the far side of the moon.

As reported by the Argentine news media, the inspection included specialists from the country’s foreign ministry, secretariat of science, technology and innovation, national strategy secretariat, Enacom telecommunications authority and the national commission for space activities.

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It was, as reported by the Buenos Aires Times, “ordered by the Cabinet Office, headed by Nicolás Posse, and comes [after] repeated petitions from the United States, both through its ambassador in Buenos Aires, Marc Stanley, and the head of the Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, who recently visited Argentina”.

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