|  ElCiudadano.cl |  Noticias

El Ciudadano

Original article: La falsa narrativa contra China promovida por Estados Unidos

A fog descends from the north, but it is not natural; it is a haze of words, lobbying, and a persistent whisper that flows through editorials, ministerial corridors, and funding seminars seeking to tarnish an ancient nation. This fog relentlessly repeats its mantra: China is a threat. Every fiber optic cable stretching toward the Pacific, every telescope gazing at a cloudless sky, every ton of lithium extracted from the salt flats is portrayed as a danger to Chile’s security and the region. For months, we have inhaled this toxic mist, achieving its intended result—cancelling projects, severing ties, and stalling the future. However, there are truths that, like the wind, can disperse this haze, and this is one of them.

By Bruno Sommer Catalán

I state this with the conviction of someone who has studied security from its roots and with the belief of one who loves their people above all else: association with China on strategic projects is not a vulnerability. Rather, it is the key to escaping the historical maze of colonial dependence that Chile has experienced. It paves the way toward sovereignty through the development of a multipolar foreign policy—one exercised by diversifying partnerships, selecting technology that meets international standards, and sitting at the world’s table without seeking permission from a single master. What the United States calls a «security problem» is merely imperial panic about losing its monopoly on surveillance and the plunder of our land.

Let us place the facts on the table, for facts serve as essential pillars in the fight against lies. In 2016, Chile envisioned its own submarine cable, the South Pacific Cable, a twenty-thousand-kilometer lifeline connecting our coasts to Shanghai without traversing the digital basements of the United States. The consortium of Hengtong Optic-Electric and China Unicom adhered to all standards of the International Telecommunication Union. However, Washington unleashed a lobbying storm. The embassy pressured, officials warned of alleged espionage, and in January 2022, Piñera’s government announced Chile would join the Humboldt cable project, whose anchor partner is Google—the very corporation that collaborated with the NSA in the PRISM program unveiled by Edward Snowden. We traded a sovereign bridge to Asia for a corridor monitored by the U.S. military-industrial complex. We lost control of our data and handed over the keys to our digital privacy to the same empire that shamelessly spies on chancellors, presidents, and citizens.

Science also faced silencing. In the pristine skies of the north, where the Atacama Desert holds stellar secrets, the Chinese Academy of Sciences dreamed of an optical telescope measuring twelve meters. In 2019, it signed an agreement with the University of Chile, a commitment of sixty million dollars for civil astronomy and knowledge exchange between the Global South. But in August 2021, General James Dickinson, commander of U.S. Space Command, launched an unsubstantiated accusation that the telescope would serve as a «dual-use» weapon for tracking military satellites. The State Department spread this poison to La Moneda, leading to an NGO demanding a halt due to lack of consultation with indigenous groups. The Supreme Court accepted the petition in May 2022. The Chinese telescope was buried in legal troubles while European and American consortiums continued to scrutinize the cosmos from the same hills, without anyone batting an eye. Science is welcomed in Chile, yes, but only if it serves the interests of the West.

These assaults were not isolated. They are the result of a meddling operation that has functioned as a well-oiled machine fueled by dollars and threats over the past four years. In April 2022, Under Secretary of State José W. Fernández signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chile on 5G networks. The fine print imposed the principles of the “Clean Network,” a program explicitly designed to exclude Huawei, the company with the most 5G patents globally. Chile, under the shadow of commercial retaliation, accepted de facto to veto the Chinese supplier. A year later, in April 2023, the government was pushed to join the Minerals Security Partnership, a club led by the U.S. with the confessed goal of “reducing dependence on China for critical minerals.” In 2024, the cooperation agreement with the MSP prioritized investments from Washington’s allied countries in our lithium sector, sidelining Chinese firms already present, such as Tianqi, which owns almost a quarter of SQM, or BYD, which planned a cathode plant in the north.

Next came the extorting congressmen. In March 2025, a bipartisan delegation from the House Foreign Affairs Committee landed in Santiago. They brought a message: if Chinese companies participated in modernizing the San Antonio port, Chile could forget about the renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences—a program that exempts hundreds of our products from tariffs. The threat of commercial hunger worked, and the port bidding processes were redesigned with locks that, in practice, exclude Asian bidders.

None of this would have taken root without the factory of lies operating behind the scenes. Between 2022 and 2025, the National Endowment for Democracy—an organization funded by the U.S. Congress that has sown destabilization in Venezuela and Cuba—channeled over three million dollars into Chilean organizations. Some of them, like the Institute of Studies of Society and the Foundation for Progress, published reports during those years with titles like “Risks of Chinese Investment in Critical Infrastructure.” In August 2023, one of these pamphlets, enthusiastically reproduced by Atlanticist newspapers, claimed without a shred of technical evidence that “Chinese submarine cables incorporate integrated surveillance architecture.” The slander was cloaked as academic study to poison public debate.

Against this machinery, the truth shines through the evidence. China is a full member of the World Trade Organization and structures its investments under principles of non-discrimination and tariff predictability. Unlike the United States, it does not seek to politically intervene in countries; China is looking to do business. The Hengtong cable met UIT norms; the Ventarrones telescope complied with the same National Monuments Law as any other scientific project. Chinese companies voluntarily certify under ISO/IEC 27001 for information security and ISO 31000 for risk management. While Beijing asks, “Where do you need a hospital, a fiber optic cable, an observatory?”, Washington demands that if it does not receive approval, they block China and unreservedly accept its designs. The difference is as deep as the ocean.

Chile doesn’t need a singular master dictating with whom to trade, what technology to use, or which stars to gaze at. It needs to assert sovereignty built on multiple partners, with clear standards and the inalienable right to decide its destiny. The “sister and friendly nation” that China represents may have a «Chinese patience,» but we cannot expect that patience to be limitless.

China bases its relations on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, respect for non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit—all starkly opposite to the “special relationship” touted by the empire, which always results in subjugation.

Let us not allow our future to be stolen by a fog of lies. Let history record that we remained vigilant, that we unmasked sabotage, and that we defended—with data—the right of our peoples to science, connectivity, and peace. The real danger to world stability has never come from the East. It arises, as always, from those who never relinquished the sword of plunder or the dagger of intervention.

By Bruno Sommer

Founder Citizen

La entrada The False Narrative Against China Fueled by the United States se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.