US congresswoman warns Argentina against building Chinese military planes: ‘They’re making a deal with the devil’

US Congressman Maria Elvira Salazar claimed in a legislative hearing that the Argentine government planned to build a factory for Chinese fighters to export them to the region, and He warned that military cooperation with China would be “a pact with the devil that may have consequences of biblical proportions”.

The Republican legislator, chair of the Western Hemisphere subcommittee, took advantage of her intervention to issue a direct warning to Buenos Aires. “I will use this forum to send a message to the Argentines, in particular to the Vice President. I want to do it in Spanish, because maybe they won’t listen to you and maybe they will listen to me. to warn you that If they decide to build an aircraft factory, Chinese fighters, it’s a very bad idea for them, and for everything related to the relationship with the United States.“, he expressed.

Later, he reiterated his warning in Spanish.

“Your President (referring to Vice President Cristina Kirchner) and its president (Alberto Fernandez) make a pact with the devil that can have consequences of biblical proportions. The United States will not sit idly by because you cannot have an ally that manufactures and exports Chinese military aircraft and sells them to its neighbors.“, he pointed.

“There are two worlds, the free world and the slave world, I hope Argentinians stay in the free world“, he finished.

As detailed in a press release, “Fernández de Kirchner is openly considering the possibility of purchasing Chinese JF-17 fighter jets and manufacturing them in Argentina at specially built Chinese factories.” This policy, he added, “follows the trend of similar agreements the Chinese have made with Venezuela and Bolivia.”

Argentina has included in its 2022 budget a line item of USD 664 million for acquire 12 JF-17 Thunder-Block III supersonic aircraft, of Chinese descent, but the purchase did not materialize. Late last year, the president said the country “must allocate its resources to more important things than buying military aircraft today.”

Salazar also said that Argentina “has allowed the Chinese Communist Party to fully control the operations of a space station, which has about 400 football fields and is located in the middle of the Patagonian desert”, referring to the installed base. China in Neuquén, officially dedicated to space research.

“There is no agreement to regulate the base or its surveillance activities, not even with the Argentine government”, denounced the Florida legislator.

The congresswoman, born in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, was a journalist for 35 years before entering politics, mostly in North American media targeting Latinos, such as cnn in spanish, Telemundo there university.

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