Foreign space activities in Argentina: Geopolitical imaginaries on the role of China and Europe in the national press (2007–2016)

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/jglobfaul.9.1.0083
• Published date: 30 March 2022
• Date: 30 March 2022
• Pages: 83-100
• Author: Daniel Blinder
• Subject Matter: media,geopolitics,imagining,space bases,China,Europe

Journal of Global Faultlines, 2022

Vol. 9, No. 1, 83—100.

83

Foreign space activities in Argentina:

Geopolitical imaginaries on the role of China and

Europe in the national press (2007–2016)

Daniel Blinder1

Abstract

This article endeavors to understand the construction of a geopolitical imaginary over the

People’s Republic of China deep space station on Bajada del Agrio, Province of Neuquén,

from the perspective of geopolitics. This paper introduces a comparative perspective: the

Chinese space facilities are not a unique case within the borders of this sovereign state:

there is a similar space installation called Deep Space Antenna under European Union flag

in Malargüe, Province of Mendoza. In order to track the construction of such geopolitical

imagination, this article analyzes the discourses offered in newspapers of national circulation

in the South American country: Clarín, La Nación, and Página/12 from 2007 to 2016. This

work also describes and analyzes domestic and foreign political discourses, and the sources

of information the media selects to explain the issues the facilities raise. Argentina is a state

of the Global South with an autonomous track of space development. Acquiring technology

from a rising power could be disruptive, generating tensions with the core states, which

were former exclusive partners and clients.

Key Words: media; geopolitics; imagining; space bases; China; Europe

Introduction: a constructed imagining

Argentina has a long history regarding space technology, from the 1960s, developing incre-

mental launch capabilities, to the 1980s when the military and President R. Alfonsín devel-

oped a middle-range missile, triggering geopolitical concerns in media and diplomacy that

the country would became dangerous as a creator or proliferator of weapons of mass destruc-

tion in early 1990s. This was the first step in the construction of a geopolitical imagination on

Argentine space development. After that, Argentine policymakers opted for exclusively civil-

ian development, mainly satellites, and cooperated with the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA) and the European agencies. In recent years Argentina has started a

strong cooperation on space policy with China. Since 1960s, many remarkable goals have

been accomplished such as launching rockets Alfa, Beta, and Gamma Centauro, Orion,

Castor, Rigel, Tauro and the Canopus II, which launched a monkey into space and brought it

back alive. Since the 1990s, Argentines have focused on civil institutionalization after the

founding of the new agency, the National Commission for Space Activities (CONAE), and

satellite development such as Lusat-1, Victor-1, SAC-A, SAC-B, SAC-C, SAC-D, and SAOCOM.

This paper analyzes the media perception and portrayal of the space stations from

Europe and China in Argentina that are supported and sustained by geopolitical imagina-

tion. The questions I attempt to answer are the following: What are the geopolitical con-

structions in the media about space activities in the European and Chinese cases? What are

the differences between how China and Europe are portrayed in the global discourse on

these scientific-technological activities? I argue that an approach – from the point of view of

government or the media – to foreign space stations on sovereign Argentinean soil, will face

DOI:10.13169/jglobfaul.9.1.0083

84

Foreign space activities in Argentina

Daniel Blinder

double standards vis a vis the Chinese space station in Argentina, while favoring the

Europeans and a strong pro-United States allies bias. China, as an emerging power, is not

only a global player in the economy, and acquiring modern military capabilities. It is also

achieving technological goals in niches that were traditionally those of other states, such as

space technology. By making a space cooperation treaty as the deep space antenna with

China, Argentina is making different foreign policy decisions as a traditional partner of the

United States, provoking concerns about China and its global projection.

In order to answer those questions, I turn first to a comparative perspective where I

describe the Chinese space facilities that are not a unique case in the national sovereign ter-

ritory of Argentina. As a matter of fact, the European Union has set up a similar installation

called Deep Space Antenna in Malargüe. Secondly, this article analyzes the discourses

offered in newspapers of national circulation in the South American country: Clarín, La

Nación, and Página/12 from 2007 to 2016, in which I found several geopolitical discourses

regarding both antennas, the Chinese and the European. I study the domestic and foreign

political discourses, and the information sources the media selected to explain the issues the

facilities raised. Third and finally, the paper extracts some inferences regarding the interpre-

tations of the roles of both antenna´s owners from the primary sources, their interpretations

of what the world is like, what Argentina´s alliances should be, what the dangers of its cur-

rent alliances are, how Europe or the Western world are or should be towards Argentina,

and why China represents a national danger.

The selected period begins with the first government of Cristina Fernández de

Kirchner (2007–2015) and ends with the midterm of the Mauricio Macri presidency (2015–

2019). The reasoning behind this methodological selection is that the stations were built

during the government of Cristina Fernández. Throughout the same presidential term sev-

eral media reports were favorable to the European astronomical ground station. Years later,

several publications warned about the construction of the Chinese facility, until halfway

throuigh Macri’s period. The Kirchner governments can be characterized as progressive,

while Macri’s as right wing. In this sense, the alliances and international positions were very

different: while the Kirchner presidency implemented a multilateral foreign policy, with a

focus on the South American region and the emerging countries of the Global South, Macri`s

government favored a policy of strategic alliances with the industrialized Western powers,

especially the United States and Europe.

When Kirchner came to power in Argentina (2003) there was a strong economic and

social crisis, product of neoliberal policies adopted in the 1990s. The South American politi-

cal context had shifted throughout the region towards more progressive governments,

which favored geopolitical unity through the South American Union of Nations (UNASUR),

the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Bolivarian Alliance

for the Americas (ALBA), the strengthening of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR),

and other economic and political integration initiatives, and bilateral agreements such a

tighter relation with China. The political exhaustion of these governments, in Argentina,

Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, or Venezuela, led to rising protests and a new historical political

right-wing cycle in the 2010s.

From the empirical sources of selected media, the only one who endorsed Kirchner’s

governments was Página/12. The others were critical, endorsing Macri’s policies since he

took office. When the media published on the facilities of the European Agency, they high-

lighted the potential for national and world astronomy. On the other hand, regarding the

facilities of the China Agency, the media highlighted the possibility of a military use, which

could affect international security. Since the technologies are very similar, the comparison

is worthy of academic inquiry, because the anti-Chinese bias is very evident.

An assessment about these perceptions by media and experts on representations of

China, vis a vis Europe exposes a partisanship, regarding a political point of view of where