Chile is on the verge of a major digital transformation with the Chile–China Express (CChE) project, a proposed submarine cable that would connect the Chilean coast with Hong Kong.
Although official figures on its length and investment amount remain confidential, estimates put the length at more than 10,000 kilometers and a capacity of up to 16 terabits per second per fiber, Peruvian daily La República reported.
The cable’s scale is such that data traffic from neighboring countries — Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and others — could be channeled through this system, exposing strategic information to possible interception. This new infrastructure has generated concern well beyond Chile’s borders.
The cable would mean making the data that passes through it available to Beijing, due to its legislation requiring data sharing, experts warn. The concern is amplified by the fact that since 2017, China’s Cybersecurity Law has mandated that companies and citizens cooperate without restriction with intelligence services. This regulation requires local storage, auditing, and data transfer for critical infrastructure operators.
The project’s opacity adds another layer of uncertainty. “The Chile-China Express cable appears in industry records as an ‘in progress’ initiative, with little information available about its financing, consortium, and contractual terms. The absence of an open call for bids and the low level of transparency are the first warning signs,” Infobae reported.
Chile, a platform for Chinese expansion in South America
The strategy behind the project goes beyond simple connectivity. Guillermo Holzmann, international analyst and academic at the University of Valparaíso, emphasizes: “The Chile-China Express idea is not a coincidence or just an attempt by China to gain greater supremacy in our region. It is part of what we are seeing today in South America with regard to the deepening of China’s ties with Latin America, with a special focus on Chile.”
Holzmann adds that for China, “Chile is a platform for expansion into the rest of Latin America, particularly with regard to financial issues and investment evaluation.”
The academic particularly stresses the security dimension: “For China, access to data is extremely important, and this data necessarily comes from the information that companies wishing to do business with the country must share, particularly when entering Hong Kong.” Although Hong Kong possesses a separate legal framework, “this does not exempt it from the control of the Chinese regime or from the obligation to share a series of data of varying sensitivity, which ultimately remain under China’s control.”
Holzmann warns that the proposed infrastructure “will have a reach throughout the Southern Cone, stretching from Brazil to Paraguay and the Pacific coast. We are facing a Chinese strategy of penetration and deepening of its influence, which reinforces Latin America’s technological and industrial dependence on its digital infrastructure.”
Humboldt Connect: transparency and international cooperation
The contrast with other projects is striking. Currently underway is the Humboldt Connect submarine cable, promoted by Google in partnership with Desarrollo País and the French Polynesian Post and Telecommunications Office. This initiative, which links Valparaíso with Sydney via Oceania and the Asia-Pacific region, was announced with publicly detailed information on the schedule, investment, and partners.
Installation of the cable began in 2025 and is expected to be operational by late 2026 to early 2027, extending over nearly 15,000 km. The consortium maintains that this infrastructure will strengthen Chile’s geopolitical position by becoming the country’s second major connection to the United States. In a June 2025 statement, the Chilean government emphasized that “Humboldt will promote the development of national software and artificial intelligence [AI] industry, which requires this connectivity. This will allow Chile to consolidate its position as the region’s digital hub and a leader in AI in Latin America, complementing advances such as the National AI Policy and the National AI Center, among others.”
Political and technical risks: voices of alarm
“The way in which this project has been promoted contravenes basic principles of caution. Moving forward without broad political consensus or rigorous public discussion is imprudent,” Chilean Senator Alejandro Kusanovic wrote in an opinion piece for Chilean news site El Líbero.
He recalled that established democracies have restricted their technological cooperation with China due to serious risks concerning cybersecurity, confidentiality, and technological autonomy. The congressman argued that if China wants to do business with Chile, it must do so under clear rules and with full respect for national sovereignty, as well as historical alliances and democratic institutions.
“The most vulnerable points are not in the ocean, but at the extremes: The mooring stations, management equipment, and operation centers, where it is possible to access metadata — who is communicating, when, and how much — or unencrypted data if the applications or higher networks do not apply robust encryption,” Erich Zschaeck, a cybersecurity scholar at Adolfo Ibáñez University in Chile, told Diálogo.
For a breach to occur, he explains, “three conditions would have to align: technical or physical access to the end of the cable, lack of encryption in the upper layers of communication, and absence of oversight or regulation of operations and audits.”
Zschaeck also emphasizes that a submarine cable “is not measured solely by its capacity, but also by who manages it, under what rules, and how access is controlled.” For this reason, he insists that political leaders must ensure reliable partners, transparent policies, and clear agreements on data sovereignty. This rigor, he laments, has not been seen in the case of the CChE, where “there have been several breaches and withdrawals on the Chinese side.”
Sovereignty and trust
The decision on the future of digital connectivity in South America is being debated not only in laboratories and engineering offices, but in the crucial arena of sovereignty, transparency, and international trust. The lack of political consensus and necessary rigor in the CChE project directly compromises Chile’s technological autonomy and, by extension, the data sovereignty of the entire Southern Cone. Proceeding without transparent agreements or reliable partners transforms critical infrastructure into a geopolitical vulnerability, potentially forcing the region to pay a steep price for future independence.
