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According to a recent report from the US think tank Center for Strategic &, International Studies ( CSIS), China is likely to be spied on from Cuba. In its analysis of four locations in Cuba that China is most likely to be using for spying against the US, CSIS used satellite pictures and open information in its record. This news follows previous week’s developmentsthat four Russian boats, including a radioactive underwater and a ship, docked in Cuba.
The Biden administration first denied Chinese spy in Cuba last year when a June 2023 Wall Street Journal article called a spokeswoman for the National Security Council John Kirby, calling the relationship “untrue.” However, a source close to the Biden administration then claimed that China” conducted an update of its cleverness collection features in Cuba in 2019″ and that” their is well-documented in the brains report.” Weeks later, Reuters reported that the Biden presidency expressed fears to Cuba regarding the island’s hostility to Chinese spy agents.
According to the most recent CSIS review, China has a history of engaging in like spying because during the Cold War, the USSR spied on the US at the Lourdes Signals Intelligence Complex in Cuba. Four sites in Cuba that use SIGINT ( signals intelligence ) as sites that China is most likely to use to gather intelligence on the United States have been cracked by CSIS.
The first is Bejucal, which according to the document is Cuba’s largest SIGINT page. It is on hilly ground overlooking Havanna, and held the USSR’s nuclear arms during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. According to the review, there has been fear” for years” that Bejucal is a page of Chinese espionage, based on both unidentified government records, Congressional evidence, and Spanish and English advertising. Senator Marco Rubio was even mentioned by name on the website in the report’s report in 2016, claiming that Cuba should “kick ] out this Chinese listening station in Bejucal.” Additionally, satellite imagery indicates that Bejucal underwent “major updates over the past ten years,” including” the building of a strange innovative radome that may have a sensor or ELINT system.”
The next page is El Salao, located in southeast Cuba. This website coincides with rumors that China has a “large transmitter area” in the province of Santiago de Cuba dating back to 1999. Given its close proximity to Guantanamo Bay, the CSIS review further asserts that China would benefit greatly from this area. SIGINT was unable to find a service in Santiago de Cuba, but it was able to locate one in El Salao, which is located just south of Santiago de Cuba. El Salao began construction on a circularly disposed antenna array ( CDAA ), a spying technique used by both the US and USSR during the Cold War. China has been building more and more CDAAs, especially in the South China Sea, despite CSIS’ claim that both the US and Russia have turned aside from this technology.
The next site is Wayjay, around 10 kilometers northwest of Bejucal. There are” significant operations and support services, as well as a small solar farm,” as well as a one-year increase in radios at this site from 2002 to 2012. The variety of antennas existing is a clear indicator that Wajay is in charge of a fairly sophisticated SIGINT mission set, according to the report.
The third page is Calabazar, located near Wayjay and cover “over a few” food radios.
The CCP and Cuba have unwaveringly refute claims that China is eavesdropping on the US from Cuban soil. China cooperates with Cuba without bringing any third parties into the picture. We would not tolerate any blatant denigration or disparage from anyone, said Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, claimed that the allegations were “hyped up” and “nothing but slander”. According to a Global Times editorial, the accusations are” a clear case of concocting charges without substantial evidence,” and that” [t]he WSJ, CSIS, and the forces behind were not seeking objectivity and fairness, but for concocting a “dirty bomb” of public opinion to align with Washington to suppress China and Cuba. The report was riddled with rumors about Chinese military bases that do not exist and no one has seen, according to Vice Foreign Minister of Cuba Carlos Fernandez de Cossio.
The CCP and Cuba continue to deny allegations that China spied on US citizens in Cuba, but the Biden administration at least made that claim public in 2023, with Senator Marco Rubio raising concerns years earlier. It remains to be seen how China will use its intelligence in Cuba to fight the US as China continues to escalate its rhetoric and grey-zone war against Taiwan.
