Pulling Latin America into China's Orbit: The PLA's Dual-Use Space Infrastructure Network in the Western Hemisphere

This paper analyzes the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) deliberate expansion of ostensibly civilian space infrastructure across Latin America as a dual-use network that enhances the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) global Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and warfighting capabilities. Drawing primarily on the U.S. House Select Committee on the CCP’s February 2026 investigative report Pulling Latin America into China’s Orbit, complemented by open-source intelligence, academic literature, and U.S. Department of Defense assessments, the study identifies four central findings: Top-down strategic directives—rooted in Military-Civil Fusion policy and the Belt and Road Spatial Information Corridor—that guide the PRC’s overseas space infrastructure development; Beijing’s recognition of Latin America as a critical geographic gap for achieving near-continuous global SDA coverage; The eleven PRC-linked space facilities identified across Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, and Brazil; The collective functions of these sites, including adversary intelligence collection, counterspace targeting, ballistic missile guidance, and electromagnetic warfare support. The paper argues that China’s regional space infrastructure is not merely scientific or commercial in nature but forms part of an integrated network that strengthens the PLA’s capacity to monitor, control, and potentially disrupt adversary space operations. Finally, the analysis assesses the strategic implications for U.S. and hemispheric security and evaluates the policy recommendations advanced in the source report—among them, the need to reassess bilateral space cooperation agreements, reinforce transparency mechanisms, and mitigate risks to Western space technology and information assets.