The Trump Administration puts on the table Kast’s first diplomatic challenge over the Chinese submarine cable project

Four days before José Antonio Kast takes office as president of Chile, on March 11, he will be at Trump National Doral, Donald Trump’s Miami golf course. The Chilean is one of the Latin American leaders invited to the Shield of the Americas summit. And he will attend the meeting at a complex diplomatic moment between the United States and Chile due to the sanctions that Washington established – the revocation of visas – on three senior officials of the Government of Gabriel Boric, including the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz, under the accusation of «undermining regional security and subverting sovereignty», following a project under evaluation of an underwater fiber optic cable proposed by two private Chinese companies. An accusation, according to the left-wing Executive, “absolutely false.” Therefore, Kast’s trip, in the midst of controversy, raises at least two questions. One is whether he will address the issue with Trump and the other is what his Administration will do with the project that has been in the making for years and will reach his desk. The Republican’s first diplomatic dilemma, which has not yet reached La Moneda, is sensitive, since it includes China, the South American country’s main trading partner, and the United States, its main foreign investor. The crossings between authorities of the Trump Government and Boric due to the revocation of Muñoz’s visa, and two of his advisors who have not yet been notified, have been escalating over the days. The US ambassador to Chile, Brandon Judd, said this Monday that he had warned of his country’s concern about the Chinese cable project to the Chilean president’s ministers, and described it as «laughable» that the left-wing Administration was «surprised» by the sanctions, a term used by Foreign Minister Alberto Van Klaveren on Friday in La Moneda. This, since he said that weeks before he held “a large number of meetings with ministers and government officials” in which he addressed the issue. In the midst of the tension, there is a message that Washington has repeated: its expectation to strengthen cooperation with Kast, with whom it hopes to promote “shared priorities,” in particular hemispheric security. “We look forward to working with the new Government to provide what the Chilean people demanded,” Judd said at a press conference on Monday. “By working together we can ensure that this region – our shared neighborhood – is safe and prosperous for everyone,” he added. The words are far from those used last Friday by the State Department led by Marco Rubio – who is expected to attend Kast’s inauguration – when it reported the sanctions: “In its decline, the legacy of the Boric Government will be even more tarnished by actions that undermine regional security at the expense, ultimately, of the Chilean people.” In addition, Judd said that the Chile China Express project, which proposes an underwater cable between the Chilean coast in the Valparaíso region and Hong Kong, «has generated great concern in Washington about Chile’s ability to protect sensitive information and data in other channels» and warned that this «could force a review of all spectrums of information exchange that we have with Chile, including programs that provide real benefits, security and facilities to the Chilean people. I hope it does not come to that point.» The Chinese embassy in Chile, chaired by Niu Qingbao, has accused the United States this Saturday, in a public statement, of going against the interests of the South American country: «The sanction implemented by the American side against them demonstrates an obvious contempt for the sovereignty, dignity and national interests of Chile, and exhibits its hegemonic and despotic nature, which has provoked deep disapproval and strong rejection.» The Chilean ambassador to the United States, Juan Gabriel Valdés told Diario Financiero that, despite the fact that Washington had shown its objections to the Chinese project, even under the Government of Joe Biden, what happened on Friday is “surprising” because “the Biden Administration did not use those threatening methods.” «These are measures that seek, in some way, to illustrate to the future Government of Chile and the others in the region, for example, Argentina, what it may mean to admit Chinese investments in some area that the United States considers strategic. That is the issue,» he noted, and advanced that he believes that «President Kast will probably encounter a situation of great polarization there.» [en EE UU]»A view that has been shared by the former foreign minister of the socialist Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006), Ignacio Walker, who has said that the US attack «is a warning to the incoming president José Antonio Kast.» Also by the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Michelle Bachelet, Heraldo Muñoz, who pointed out to La Tercera that the Trump Administration’s sanction «uses the Boric Government to send a warning message to the coming Kast Government.» «That is, Instead of confronting the government of the president-elect, if it continues with the Chinese cable project, it sanctions the current one, because it has only a few days left and the cost is reduced, but the warning remains,» he added. Judd was asked this Monday, precisely, for that reason: if the signal also went to the Republican. «Not at all,» he answered. «What happened is that these people [los funcionarios] They made decisions, and these decisions must have consequences if they can harm this country, the Chilean people, and also if they can harm the region that we share, regionally, and harm the United States.» The task of surfing the diplomatic relationship with the United States during the Kast Government will fall to the future chancellor, Francisco Pérez Mackenna, who will accompany the president-elect to the summit in Miami on March 7. The appointment of the successful businessman, who will make his debut in the political arena in the Republican Administration, was seen as a signal to promote foreign business and increase investment in Chile. Upon learning of the sanctions against the three Boric officials, Pérez Mackenna had to speak out, which reveals the shock caused by the United States sanctions, although he did not refer to the substance. “We believe that it is necessary to know absolutely all the background information regarding the decision reported by the United States Department of State in order to analyze the foundations of this measure and its consequences for the people affected by that decision,” he said in a statement. He added that foreign policy “should always be based on defense.” of the interests of Chile and all Chileans.» The Chinese project was presented to the Government of China in January 2016 by Jorge Heine, former Chilean ambassador to China, during the second Bachelet Administration (2014-2018). The political scientist related in a CNN interview that he was one of the promoters along with the former Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Pedro Huichalaf, and that progress was made in a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Government and feasibility studies. But then came the change of Administration, when Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014, 2018-2022), from the traditional right, began his second term at La Moneda. And he said that when Biden’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, made a trip to Chile, he “read the card” to the Piñera Government and the project “was canceled.”