China is again pressuring Argentina to establish a naval base in Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego province, which would open the door to Antarctica for Beijing.
The military base would allow China to control the passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific and monitor communications throughout the hemisphere, which would amount to clear and massive interference by the Asian country in international affairs.
A possible Chinese base in Ushuaia would allow Beijing to have a permanent enclave in the southern hemisphere, with a projection to the South Atlantic, which, depending on the terms negotiated with Argentina, would require the construction of facilities and the presence of naval units and military contingents in this quadrant,” said Alberto Rojas, director of the Observatory of International Affairs at Chile’s Finis Terrae University.
“China could intercept all kinds of regional communications, which would have clear economic and strategic implications, and would also have the ability to constantly monitor sea transit,” he added.
Shuiping Tu, an Argentina-based Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official and representative of the state-owned HydroChina Corp. in South America, is leading the negotiations, reports Intelligence Online.
Tu, the French news site added, is said to have persuaded Tierra del Fuego governor Gustavo Melella to change his stance on Chinese investment in the province.
In the geopolitical context, the presence of a Chinese base in South America could be seen as an important strategic move by Beijing.
“The Belt and Road project announced by China in 2013 aims to have a clear projection on this part of the continent,” Rojas said. “And if this base in Ushuaia is realized, it could be the first of many others, both on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the Andean region.”
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been touted as a “global infrastructure development and international cooperation strategy” designed to allow China to participate in infrastructure financing and construction to serve a broad community of common interests in Asia, Africa and Latin America. “In reality, however, it aims to increase Chinese dominance and control over developing countries,” Rojas added.
A study by AidData, a research lab at the College of William & Mary’s Global Research Institute in Virginia, which analyzed 13,427 Chinese-backed projects in 165 countries over 18 years worth US$843 billion, sheds light on Beijing’s intentions.
The study found that a growing number of Chinese-backed projects have been suspended or scrapped since the launch of the BRI, with signs of “remorse” in countries like Kazakhstan, Costa Rica and Cameroon over concerns about corruption, labor abuses, pollution and public protests, as reported by Reuters.
“More and more policymakers in low- and middle-income countries are shelving high-profile BRI projects due to inflated prices, corruption and debt sustainability concerns,” Brad Parks, one of the authors of the AidData study, told Reuters.
Major shifts in public opinion make it difficult for participating countries to maintain close ties with Beijing, Parks added.
China currently maintains three overseas operational enclaves, the most prominent of which is Djibouti in East Africa, which arose out of efforts to stem Somali pirate attacks on cargo ships in the Gulf of Aden. This gives China a strategic and permanent presence on the route connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.
“There is also the Ream naval base in Cambodia, where China plays an important role in Southeast Asia and enjoys a high degree of autonomy both in the base and in its vicinity, to the point that it has already built a new port,” so Rojas further.
“And then there’s the base in Tajikistan, which is under construction in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan, which borders China and Afghanistan, and which Beijing plans to use to increase its presence in Central Asia.”
In addition, there is the space station that China maintains in Neuquén, Argentina. “The way I see it, these are authoritarian government facilities that don’t allow Argentines access to them unless they visit them,” said US Army General Laura J. Richardson, commander of US Southern Command.
“What are they up to? They [China] don’t have the same concerns as we do about liberty and a free, secure and prosperous western hemisphere,” concluded General Richardson. “I’m concerned about it. It is operated by a state-owned company and the People’s Liberation Army. What are they using this facility for?”
With information from latinapress