【英文】国际战略研究中心报告：中国公司在阿根廷：中国的国际航天产业参与（41页）

英文研究报告 2023年02月27日 07:21 管理员

The framework agreement for the Espacio Lejano Station was signed in 2012 by Argentina’s civil space agency, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), CLTC, and the province of Neuquén, where the station is located.62 Tese parties then signed a further follow-on agreement in 2014.The deal granted China 50 years of full sovereignty and tax exemption over a 200-hectare (500-acre) plot of land to build the deep space ground station. China received the right to construct, establish, and operate ground tracking and data collection without needing to specify what the technology and data would be used for. The contract guaranteed CONAE the use of 10 percent of the deep space ground station’s operating time per year.

However, the agreement does little to limit China’s operations there. Rather, it specifes that Argentina cannot “interfere [with] or interrupt the normal activities carried out under the Cooperation Agreement” and that if Argentina were to take any decisions that might interfere with China’s activities, it must inform China in advance and explore alternative options.65 Te total cost of the station to China remains unclear. According to records captured by the AidData database, CLTC spent $50 million (USD) in state funding for the project in 2012, while Chinese media reports in 2015 say that CLTC was expected to invest $300 million.66 Te framework agreement also includes language about the Chinese government paying Chinese workers according to their own labor laws, suggesting that the $50 million could refer to the amount the Chinese government—via CLTC—paid its own contractors and workers for the station.67 Tough the framework agreement was frst reached in 2012, the deal did not pass Argentina’s Congress until 2015.68 Te station has been operational since 2018.