Argentinian congress approves deal with

China on satellite space station

Approval for base was related to controversial economic and trade

accord
Installation would be first outside of Chinas borders
Amid the barren and windswept Andes foothills of Argentinas southern
Neuqun province, a large billboard signals in English the entrance to
the China Satellite Launch and Tracking Control General (CLTC)
Chinas first space installation outside its own borders.
After two years work, some 300 Argentinian workers led by nine
Chinese managers have completed the cement casing for a 35-metrediameter antenna and on Wednesday night the base was finally
approved by Argentinas congress, amid a fierce debate about its true
purpose.
Designed to track unmanned Chinese missions to Mars and the moon,
the installation is due to go into operation next year. But opposition
politicians have raised fears that it could eventually be used for military
purposes, drawingArgentina into unwanted confrontation with third
countries, such as the US.
Its dual civilian-military technology, said opposition senator and
presidential hopeful Fernando Solanas. It can be used for both
aerospace and missile tracking.
Congressional approval for the base was tacked on to a broad and
equally controversial economic and trade agreement finalised during
President Cristina Fernndez de Kirchners official visit to China earlier
this month.
As in the case of other vital laws pushed through by Fernndez, the
China agreement was approved in a rushed rubber-stamp vote by what

Argentinas press calls the presidents automatic majority in Congress,

where the presidents FPV Victory Front party holds the majority in both
houses.
This has not stopped opposition legislators from speaking out loudly
against both the space base and the economic deal with Beijing.
Fiery opposition legislator Elisa Carri compared the agreement with
China with the 1m ($1.5m) borrowed from Barings Brothers in London
in 1824 - a loan that it took Argentina 81 years to repay. In a moment of
temporary crisis we handed the country over to the British, now were
doing the same with China, Carri said during the congressional
debate.

This agreement will mortgage our future, echoed opposition legislator

Margarita Stolbizer. Critics of the economic package say it is so
wide-ranging that it could compromise the countrys next president, to
be chosen in elections this October. The deal will restrict the capacity
for governance of whoever takes office on 10 December, Stolbitzer
added.

Argentinian international analyst Felipe de la Balze said the base could

compromise Argentinas international relations. It could have military
uses of tremendous importance that could implicate our country in a
future military conflict between the US and China, De la Balze told the
TN news channel. The agreement is seen by some as the counterpart to
an $11bn-loan accorded by China last year that has helped to offset the
dwindling reserves of Argentinas Central Bank.
We are surrendering the future of Argentinas development, said
opposition legislator Jos Ignacio de Mendiguren, head of the UIA
industrial union, the main association of Argentinas business leaders.
Mendiguren claims the agreement reduces Argentina to providing
unprocessed commodities to China while Argentina will be buying
value-added goods from the Asian giant.

China has also extended loans for two hydroelectric dams it will build in
Patagonia, among other projects. Argentina is the worlds third-largest
exporter of soy and China is its main buyer.
Critics have also pointed to a generous 50-year tax exemption for the
base and a 50-year lease to China of the 200 hectares (nearly 500 acres)
surrounding the antenna.
But Argentinas space agency CONAE has dismissed the criticism saying
that Argentina has signed a similar agreement with the ESA
European Space Agency for a similar base in the Malarge region of the
western province of Mendoza. This is part of the policies being
instrumented by President Fernndez to insert Argentina into great
projects of scientific and technological development, said Conae
Secretary-General Felix Menicocci. In return for the tax and land
concession, Argentina will be allowed to use the antenna for 10% of its
online time.
For the people in the southern region of Patagonia, Chinas space base
is nothing but good news. As the giant antenna, visible from long
distances, rises in the barren and wind-swept locality of Bajada del
Agrio, 1380 kilometres (857 miles) south of the capital city of Buenos
Aires, the 300 workers required for its construction have brought badlyneeded economic activity to the town of Las Lajas, some 50 kilometres
from the project, where the workers are located.