【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）

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.