China does denying a new report linking it to four bases in Cuba that a think tank says allows the CCP to spy on the US
The Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a report last week describing the facilities in Cuba which it claims China may be using to gather signals intelligence (SIGINT) on the US
“The cooperation between China and Cuba is in an honest manner, does not target third parties and does not allow malicious defamation of third parties,” Chinese Foreign Minister Mao Ning told reporters on Wednesday.
Cuban Foreign Minister Carlos de Cossio claimed that reports of Chinese spy centers in Cuba come from “Cuba’s enemies” in the US “as a way to justify the criminal policy of economic aggression. It is absolutely false.”
CSIS analyzed more than a dozen “locations of interest” in Cuba and four emerged as most likely to support China and its espionage ambitions.
“These sites have undergone noticeable upgrades in recent years, even as Cuba has faced increasingly dire economic prospects that have brought it closer to China.” the report authors said.
Each of the four sites had “observable SIGINT instruments,” clear physical security infrastructure, and other signs of intelligence collection.
One of those stations, located on a hill overlooking Havana, Bejucal, has been suspected for years of ties to Chinese intelligence. The complex gained fame for housing Soviet missiles during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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During the 2016 presidential debates, Senator Sen. Marco RubioR-Fla. called on Cuba to “throw out this Chinese listening station in Bejucal.”
According to CSIS’s findings, satellite images show that the site was active as of March 2024 and had been for some time. There are at least five entrances to underground facilities on the base, but what these facilities contained could not be discerned by satellite imagery. Antennas are spread across the ground, including satellite antennas used for intercepting satellite communications.
With Havana only 160 kilometers from the coast of Floridathe site could potentially be used to collect data on US rocket launches from the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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(CSIS/Concealed Range/Maxar 2024)
The US and China are engaged in a space race and rocket launches that put US satellites into space are likely to generate a lot of interest within the CCP.
At another location on the other side of the island, east of the city of Santiago de Cuba, a major radio signal-finding technology project is underway, which can detect signals at a distance of 3,000 to 8,000 nautical miles.
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Cuba has a history of allowing U.S. adversaries to use its territory to spy on U.S. communications. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union operated a SIGINT facility at the Lourdes Signals Intelligence Complex near Havana. That location monitored U.S. satellites and intercepted sensitive military and commercial telecommunications.
In recent decades, the alliance between China and Cuba has grown – with China providing around $7.8 billion in development financing to the island.
