Santiago (EFE).- China’s ambassador to Chile, Niu Quinjbao, accused the United States on Tuesday of interfering to prevent the construction of a super-telescope in Chile’s northern desert and urged the government not to delay the installation and to respect the agreements already signed.
Speaking at a press conference at the Chinese Embassy in Santiago, the diplomat stressed that his country’s project meets the same standards and scientific objectives as the US and European Union observatories in Chile.
“In 2024, both sides signed a cooperation agreement on the Transient Objects Monitoring Project (TOM) project with the aim of conducting research, and in the same year, the construction of the access road began after receiving authorization. And in January 2025, the road excavation was completed, and some equipment has already arrived in Chile,” Quinjbao explained.
“The US has always spread disinformation about this project, interfered with Chile’s right to choose its partners independently, and obstructed the project in every possible way. We are following the incident closely, and we hope that the Chilean side will be able to clear the US interference and approve the implementation of the project as soon as possible,” he denounced.
“We are in close with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for this project,” added the diplomat, who followed the agreements already signed, which date back to 2016 and are covered by an official bilateral memorandum of understanding.
The controversy over the telescope resurfaced last week after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that the viability and legality of the agreement signed between the Catholic University of the North in the Atacama region and the Chinese embassy in Chile were under review.
“The agreement is between a private university and a Chinese company. The scope of the agreement remains to be clarified, for which we are still in dialogue with the parties involved,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“If this is an initiative whose objective is astronomical observation, it has already been noted that, under current regulations, private entities cannot enter into international agreements,” it added.
The Ministry pointed out two possible outcomes, a negotiation and agreement between states, or to conduct the initiative through the University of Chile, as by law and as a public university is authorized to enter into this type of agreement.
The US denounced through its embassy that China’s objective is entirely military, a claim denied by the Chinese ambassador on Tuesday, before noting that it is an “open and transparent project open to all countries.”
“The Americans have launched this media operation only to stop the project, and we believe that this fact completely ignores its scientific objective,” Quinjbao said.
“Which Chilean law or article states that private universities cannot sign bilateral agreements on astronomical cooperation, and which law states that private universities must request government authorization to do so? If this right did not exist, the Chilean government would not have signed the MoU in 2016 in the presence of the presidents of both countries,” he stressed.
“The TOM project has the same scientific nature as the US tracking telescope. If the US insists on denouncing the military use of TOM, we may wonder if the US is carrying out undercover military operations in Chile,” Quinjbao concluded. EFE
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