The symbolism of China replacing the USSR in spying on the U.S. from Cuba could not be more revealing about the conflict we are in.
The symbolism of China replacing the USSR in spying on the U.S. from Cuba could not be more revealing about the conflict we are in.
O n June 8, the Wall Street Journal revealed that China will build a major new spy station in Cuba. The Journal reported that:
China and Cuba have reached a secret agreement for China to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island, in a brash new geopolitical challenge by Beijing to the U.S., according to U.S. officials familiar with highly classified intelligence.
An eavesdropping facility in Cuba, roughly 100 miles from Florida, would allow Chinese intelligence services to scoop up electronic communications throughout the southeastern U.S., where many military bases are located, and monitor U.S. ship traffic.
Officials familiar with the matter said that China has agreed to pay cash-strapped Cuba several billion dollars to allow it to build the eavesdropping station.
During most of the Cold War, from 1962 to 2002, the Soviet Union operated a massive signals-intelligence site at Lourdes in Cuba. The site was less than 100 miles from the United States and gave the Soviets far better access to electronic communications in the United States than they could get anywhere else. It was the largest “SIGINT” site the Soviets operated anywhere outside the Soviet Union itself. The site occupied a remarkable 28 square miles, and more than 1,000 Russians worked there.
As was true for the USSR, this new Chinese facility, if established as reported, will be China’s closest and most advantageous site for electronic eavesdropping on the United States. Just as the Soviet site was operated jointly by Cuban intelligence, Soviet military intelligence, and the KGB’s SIGINT service, we can expect that several Chinese spy agencies and elements of the People’s Liberation Army will join Cuban intelligence to work at the new facility. GlobalSecurity.org reported years ago that “Lourdes intercepts transmissions from microwave towers in the United States, communication satellite downlinks, and a wide range of shortwave and high-frequency radio transmissions.” It also “served as a mission ground station and analytical facility supporting Russian SIGINT satellites.” We can expect China to do all of this — and more.
What should we make of this new Cuba–China deal?
First, the symbolism of China replacing the USSR in spying on the United States from Cuba could not be more revealing about the new Cold War we are in. China now defines itself as the Soviets’ replacement and successor as the main antagonist of the United States. If spying from Cuba was useful for the Soviets, China wants the same advantages because it has the same enemy.
Second, this revelation about China and Cuba shows very clearly how foolish the Obama and Biden administrations have been in their efforts to improve relations with Cuba. The Cuban communist regime will of course take our money if we are offering any, but realignment out of the communist camp is not on offer. If that camp is increasingly being led from Beijing and not Moscow, that is the one realignment Havana will choose.
The Journal story reminded us:
The Biden administration has attempted to pull closer to Havana, reversing some Trump-era policies by loosening restrictions on travel to and from Cuba and re-establishing a family-reunification program. The administration has also expanded consular services to allow more Cubans to visit the U.S. and has restored some diplomatic personnel who were removed after a series of mysterious health incidents affecting U.S. personnel in Havana.
And what has been the Cuban response to these efforts? Abroad, pulling closer to China. At home in Cuba, a draconian crackdown on dissent. Repression has gotten worse, not better, since Miguel Díaz-Canel succeeded Raúl Castro as president in 2018 and as head of the Communist Party in 2021 — soon before widespread demonstrations in Cuba broke out. As a Council on Foreign Relations report summarized:
The general dysfunction has intensified already widespread discontent, but Díaz-Canel has shown no appetite for political liberalization. Instead, he passed a new penal code further criminalizing dissent in May 2022. A year before that, tens of thousands of Cubans took to the streets in nationwide protests, Cuba’s largest in nearly three decades.
What happened on July 11, 2021, and after? Americas Quarterly reported last year:
The repression of spontaneous demonstrations on that day and the next was shocking. Military and Interior Ministry forces, as well as undercover agents, violently confronted the masses of people who marched through the streets of dozens of cities and towns across the island.
The order, given by President Miguel Díaz-Canel on national television, transformed the popular marches into battlefields. . . .
The harshness of what the images revealed was accompanied by the harshness of the legal repression that followed. In January 2022, the attorney general’s office said that over 700 people were facing criminal charges related to the protests. In June, it announced that 297 people had been sentenced to between five and 25 years in prison.
Prosecution for crimes like sedition has proved even worse than the physical violence deployed last July. Many of the accused are minors aged 16 or 17, and some have received sentences that are longer than they have lived.
The political environment in Cuba is one of war.
The communist regime will now receive what the Wall Street Journal reports is “several billion dollars” from China in payment for the SIGINT site. Cuba remains what it has been since Fidel Castro took power in 1959: a country ruled by a communist party that defines itself as an enemy of the United States and an ally of any other American antagonist. Now, China is replacing Russia as Cuba’s banker, and Cuba is replaying its old Cold War role in our new Cold War with China. Who says history never repeats itself?