Chile Backtracks on China's Space Observatory

Following a Newsweek investigation, Santiago is reviewing ajoint university project with Beijing

- - DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW

IN A POTENTIAL SETBACK FOR CHIna's growing influence in Latin America and its ambitions in space, the Chilean government is reviewing an agreement for a joint astronomical observatory in Chile following a Newsweek investigation of the deal.

"We are aware of it, so we are revising and analyzing it," a spokesperson for Chile's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Newsweek via email after Chilean media reports said the project between the Chinese government and a Chilean private university had been canceled.

It comes amid a deepening geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China that has become clearly evident in Latin America, with President Donald Trump's administration putting Panama under pressure for a deal to allow an American company to regain control of the Panama Canal from Hong Kong's Hutchison Ports.

"The expanding role of the Chinese Communist Party in the Western Hemisphere threatens U.S. interests," the U.S. Department of State exclusively told Newsweek.

A spokesperson for Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an email: "As stated by Secretary Rubio, we can't live in a world in which China has more influence and more presence than we do in our region."

Newsweek reported in December that the observatory at Cerro Ventarrones in Chile's Atacama Desert a joint project of the Universidad Católica del Norte and China's National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, or NAOC-would monitor objects orbiting Earth and seek new stars, but that it could also conduct research for China's military space program, under an agreement that left Chilean counterparts largely in the dark.