Can Argentina Threaten China's Space Program? 

Do you think something could happen to China’s Espacio Lejano ground station in Neuquén? And if there would be a significant impact on the Chinese space exploration program? Let me know what you think! 🤔

I'm from Argentina. I don't think our new president will be able to do anything about it because not only China is our biggest trading partner but also the entire Argentinean economy is surviving thanks to a debt swap with China. The attitude of Milei is sad to be honest, China's debt swap was by far the biggest international monetary help our country received (at least its terms are much more lenient than the IMF's debt terms we also have, and unlike the IMF's debt they aren't trying to force our internal policies). By the way, the contract is until 2067, and Milei can't break it without the approval of the Congress (and he doesn't have a majority there). So I bet the base will outlive Milei's presidency. He's only 6 days in and already devalued our currency by 50%.

For all economic troubles in Argentina, this is a least concern by Argentina people. But…watching out for CIA or others US agents, NED, NGO🤮👹

There is no way that China haven't thought about this scenario from every angles and have contingencies already in place to deal with it promptly to minimise any bad flow on effects.

I appreciate your work. We rarely get to hear, in English, a more moderated speech on China.

Greetings from Argentina! 阿根廷

Best to not rely of facilities built on foreign soil.

Thank you for Dongfang Hour. I have been following space for years and only met your channel today. Your research is impeccable and your visuals are totally new to me. Great work and I hope your channel grows and grows.

*Argentina signed an AGREEMENT* You can't simply tear up an international agreement like that.

This election gives me vibes of CIA doing their job.

Even if the Espacio Lejano ground station may no longer be used for CDSN, this issue can be solved by updating one Yuanwang class tracking ship for deep space & sending it to countries like Brazil. And China can also increase the number of Tianlian relay satellites.

I suspect China will be developing an alternative … or two. 1… a replacement ground station in a friendly country 2… an orbiting station with a huge super light weight antenna made reasonable due to zero mechanical loads (assembled using their orbiting station then slowly accelerated less than 0.01 G, spiraling away from low earth orbit to escape velocity and Lagrange point) 3… high bandwidth laser based communication at Lagrange point. Laser communication to the moon, earth, earth geostationary orbit, and Mars. A large far infrared mirror is ideal to detect a powerful pulse CO2 laser (10 micron wavelength makes a light weight quarter wavelength mirror easily achievable with thin mirror corrected with adjustable mechanical pressure points). China companies dominate electro optics technical conventions so they should have the expertise

China has been courting numerous nations around the world for building uplink, telemetry, surveillance capacity. They may not have redundancy in place at the moment, but they do see a strategic imperative to have that capacity in the future.

Will an anti-US government in Spain threaten US ground station in Spain? The ANSWER IS A BIG NO!! Same with Argentina. All this are commercial, gov, contract, signing, jobs, money, collaboration, access discussed, done benefit both party. Why this even a question raise is unnecessary. Argentina still need to resolve their economic issue and pay their debt.

Always appreciated

Thank you for your informative update🙏👍🙏

Thank you for an excellent analysis Well done.

Very informative thanks for the update !

I didn't know about china's deep space network, thanks for the info!

China can always shift the station to Venezuela or Brazil.

Don't cry for me Argentina.

Milei is a U$ marionette, that's true, and can indeed create some problems for Сhina. But like, Сhina can easily build another deep space ground station in a matter of months. So the answer to your question is no, Argentina cannot threaten Сhina's Space Program.

They can simply move it to chili.

As a Chinese. I wish the Argentinians all the best of luck in difficult times!

Chinese of course can always not make available yuan currency swaps to Argentina for payments on all those outstanding IMF loans, but the way Javier "El Loco" Milei changed his tune regrading China once reality smacked him in the face is pretty much a guarantee that nothing is going to change with the Espacio Lejano Station...🤣😂🤣😂

LMAO what an incredible overestimation of Argentina's importance 😂😂😂

dont worry he will be gone in 4 years, maybe less 🚁

The answer is NO. If China doesn't want to rely on other countries because of their political whim, they can build a fleet of ships which house the communication systems and its large antennas and have them stationed anywhere in international waters in the Pacific, Atlantic and/or Indian oceans. Make extra ships so those on station duty can be relieved. If China can build aircraft carriers, they can design and build these ships. What I wonder, Argentina is located in the bottom region of the southern hemisphere. Makes more sense to have had this station in Argintina located in Equador, Columbia, or Panama... or another country c;loser to the equator. But what do I know?

Supposedly ally Brazil Fernando de noronha Island would been an asset for Chinese space program ( monitoring station etc) but exclusive use were given to US instead.

The Argentine Peso has lost 99% of it's value over the past 10 years. That's mind boggling.

It's cool ,if China want stations in the Southern hemisphere, they can come to SA ,an actual partner

I get necktie-chewing vibes from Milei.

Argentina is poor. Has no Money. And the devaluation is 200 percent. Argentina in Chaos.

Any news regarding the Chinese IHP-1 and IHP-2 missions? Are they still going to be launched in 2024?

Such a fascinating question, as what seems trivial has much complexity. A reliable DSN is essential, particularly for interplanetary exploration. Location is typically in a desert mountain bowl to avoid radio interference, so really limits terrestrial options. A space-based antenna in Earth orbit is not likely, but one at an Lagrange Point could be an option, however would be size limited. Was thinking China might be able to access the Soviet DSN (Russian DSN), but that too presents challenges. Of the four SDN locations (Crimea, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia, Primorsky Krai, Russia, and Uzbekistan which was never completed before the Soviet collapsed), only Moscow and Primorsky Krai might be reliable options. NASA (US) established it's DSN 65 years ago (1958) and is facing limitations as a growing number of deep space satellites reduce available communication windows. LASER communications was recently tested, which might provide a radio alternative to reaching deep space.

Think a contract is nevertheless still a legal and binding contract. If the president wants to terminate the contract, then just let view the termination clause as all contract should have these clause.

interesting!

Could China not just build a larger antenna in another country in south america??

I support civilian Space programs and the success of Chinese Space program has forced US government to restart lunar missions. Competition is good for Space exploration also ! I don't know if the US and Chinese space ground stations around the world are also used for intelligence and military purposes. The ship based deep space station could be one of the solution.

How

Ships.

Who is going to help Argentina win back Falkland Islands if not China?

can't china build a station in Chile mainland or chile island in the pacific San Juan Baustita?

Except for N. Korea whose main focus military, global cooperation on space exploration is a common human advancement. Unfortunately as noted there is potential for military or at least spying overlap. Still Argentina would be able to keep an eye on China. Even Russia cooperated on the intl space station.

Interesting. Now knowing before that, this country far away from China plays an important role.............. wait and see how everything play out in the coming 10+/- years. thanks for the info

👍👍👍

China Biggest Space Journey in 2025

Last time I heard, Milei has made an abrupt U-turn. As at this point in time, he still doesn't know which direction he's facing. 😂

The US is unable to give any legal binding garantee that the next administration will support any agreement signed by a previous administration. This needs an amendment to the US Constitution because, with the US legal system, the US government is legally bind only to the US éconstitution. So if Argentina get a bilateral agreement with the US Government that the US will financially support them for any legal penality caused by canceling a contract with China, another US President can come in and unilaterally revoke that agreement.

China already stopped performing on the two countries' currency swap agreement as a small warning to Argentina.

The Queqiao relay satellite should solve the communication between the back of the moon and the earth, not the deep space communication network. If China does not have the power like the United States to maintain its overseas control, it may have to consider space-based deep space communication satellite constellations (putting huge pot-lid antennas on satellites).

Latino BoJo.

This is unfortunate. It will take multiple years if not 10 to build an alternative.

One word, Cuba!

This is oxymoron type debate of the weak economic country holding power over economic/manufacture strongest country. we're really talking about the western colonial empire...and argentina was always a part of that. look how good it did that country? "fool me once"

Argentina ! not even us

I dont think Argentina loose cannon president will do anything on past actions with China. but moving forward, it may not be so accommoding on dealing with a govt they think is not pro liberal. Milei had even thank Xi Jinping for his congratulatory message

Yes, rationally, from an economics standpoint, Chile's president won't upset the Chinese. But he does get his evonomics advice from one of his dogs

China is no more communist than the USA. That is all political stupidity. I am confident that China has a healthy trade relationship with not only Argentina but with other countries as well and those relationships will make a strong defense against this anti-China propaganda. China has a healthy private space launch sector that is moving forward. China needs to work hard to develop and implement alternative communication systems.

Same could be said about American bases around the world

Wine for friends, rifle for wolves. Simple logic in grown up's world =)

why couldn't china develop ship-based dss systems?

Didn't China buy some islands in the deep south recently?

Maybe Brazil can host the station since they are a member of BRICS.

A hypothetical scenario only. He doesn’t have the power to do that in his country. He’s party is a super minority and congress won’t approve it. They’re against him big time. Argentinas are already regretting their decision to elect him as president…………

Brazil is friendly. Just move it there. No biggie.

China could just go to Bolivia and build a base there. Or Nicaragua. Or Venezuela. Or cuba. All are friendly to China

中国在阿根廷最困难的时候帮助了他，我们不需要更多的回报，只是要求按合同要求旅行义务，如果这都做不到，那么什么奇迹都不可能发生。

I guess money can solve the issue.

this

5:43 It's not "realpolitics" it's "Realpolitik". It's pronounced as RE-AL politik. Ré-àl. Not "real".

China would use Antarctica. Simple.

Don’t expect the new Argentina leader to do what’s best for Argentina. His allegiance is elsewhere.

Military surveillance is exclusive to U.S apparently!!😂😂😂

milei is basically a brunette boris johnson

I'm Currious Tho... Will Miley will be Hailed as Hero or Hailed as Clown for next 5years

Argentina can't halt China's space programme

Argentina is only a small fish in the ocean. The usa is a failing and declining country even if Argentina decides to align itself to the us. It's NO THREAT.

Nope.

Javier Milei is like Trump, alot of bark, no real bite. because the reality is everyone want peace, and there is nothing to be had by making enemies.

Let's be real. China hasn't done itself any favors here. Unlike NASA, ESA, JAXA, and other space agencies, which are all civilian programs, the Chinese space program answers directly to the People's Liberation Army, and they've been fairly opaque about many of their activities. A typical example is they don't provide many updates about what their various science/exploration missions are doing at the moment, and they often make announcements of some particular activity or achievement only after the fact, rather than before, the way most other space agencies do. Because China's space program is run by the military, everything they do is BY DEFINITION a military project. So questions/suspicions about military or dual-use applications are inevitable, and I would say even reasonable. And the issue of sovereignty on the Argentinian tracking station site where Argentina itself has limited "rights" on its own soil? The terms of the agreement make it sound more like a foreign embassy or military base rather than a civilian scientific or research facility. I can't think of any example of a civilian outpost built by a foreign nation where the host nation has such limited authority over the site. But again, this isn't a civilian outpost. It is run by the military and staffed by military personnel. If China wants to change how its space program is perceived by others, they can spin it off as a completely civilian agency, but something tells me they'll never do that, and that fact alone will speak volumes to outside observers.

Argentina is a big joke .

What a bullshit coming from this guy

LMAO 😂

Impossible, Argentina has agreements with China, that fully intent to honor.