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US Warns Over China's Expansion on its Doorstep

China's growing presence in the Western Hemisphere is a threat to the United States, the U.S. State Department has told Newsweek in unusually stark comments.

America's top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has said that the U.S. is not ready to accept greater Chinese influence in the Americas, the spokesperson said. "As stated by Secretary Rubio, we can't live in a world in which China has more influence and more presence than we do in our region. The expanding role of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Western Hemisphere threatens U.S. interests."

The comments were made in response to queries from Newsweek about a planned joint space observatory in Chile between Chinese state scientific organizations and a private Chilean university. Newsweek detailed the observatory at Cerro Ventarrones in the Atacama Desert last December, reporting that parts of the project could be beyond the control of the Chilean authorities and that it could have dual-use—both civilian and military—purposes. This week the Chilean government told Newsweek that it was reviewing the agreement.

The State Department's comments bring into sharp focus an increasingly fierce global competition for influence. China has expanded fast in the region, building or acquiring Latin American critical infrastructure such as ports including in Panama and Peru, roads, dams, electricity grids, even expanding