Chilean parliamentarians expressed concern about risks to national and regional security and defended the opening of an investigation into the Chile-China Express project, which involves the installation of a submarine fiber optic cable connecting the city of Valparaíso to Hong Kong, an initiative led by the company Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) with support from the government of President Gabriel Boric, who is expected to leave power in March.
According to the Chilean press, the main focus of criticism is the lack of transparency of the project, which appears in industry records as “under development”, but without detailed public information about financing, the consortium involved and contractual terms.
Parliamentarians highlight that, unlike the Humboldt cable – developed in partnership with Google and officially announced with a schedule and budget – the China-Chile-Express progressed without clear communication from the government.
According to reports cited by local vehicles, the concern is also related to Chinese cybersecurity and intelligence legislation, which obliges companies to cooperate with communist regime authorities and make data considered strategic available. For opposition parliamentarians, this could allow information transmitted through the infrastructure to be accessed by Beijing, without effective control mechanisms on the part of Chile or other affected countries.
Part of the data traffic from countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru and Ecuador could be routed through this cable, which turns the initiative into a topic with regional reach, and not just domestic.
Senator Alejandro Kusanovic, from the center, classified the project as “uncomfortable” and defended that the new government of president-elect José Antonio Kast, who takes office in March, urgently review the initiative. According to him, submarine cables are “strategic assets, capable of allowing access to sensitive data, surveillance and power projection”, depending on who controls the infrastructure.
In the Chamber of Deputies, parliamentarian Hotuiti Teao reported that he requested a secret session of the National Defense Commission to analyze the project’s background. According to him, the sensitive nature of the initiative requires the participation of government bodies responsible for telecommunications and security, in addition to clarifications on technical criteria and cyber protection measures.
