Cuba's sovereignty exists in name only when in reality is controlled by China, Listen up Canada
Fri June 9, 2023
Cuba has agreed to allow China to build a spying facility on the island that could allow the Chinese to eavesdrop on electronic communications across the southeastern US, two sources familiar with the intelligence told CNN.
The US learned about the plan in the last several weeks, the first source said, and it is unclear whether China has already begun building the surveillance facility.
The second source familiar with the intelligence says it suggests that a deal has been struck in principle but there hasn’t been any movement on building the facility
It would not be the first time China has attempted to spy on the US’ electronic communications, known as signals intelligence. A suspected Chinese spy balloon that transited the US in February was capable of gathering signals intelligence and is believed to have transmitted back to Beijing in near-real time, sources told CNN at the time.
In that case, the US took steps to protect sensitive sites and censor intelligence signals before shooting down the balloon. But it is unclear what the US can do to stop the construction of a Chinese spying facility in Cuba.
“This report is not accurate,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a statement on Thursday afternoon. “We have had real concerns about China’s relationship with Cuba, and we have been concerned since day one of the Administration about China’s activities in our hemisphere and around the world. We are closely monitoring it and taking steps to counter it. We remain confident that we are able to meet all our security commitments at home and in the region.”
Kirby initially told the Journal on Thursday morning that he “cannot speak to this specific report,” but that US officials are “well aware of—and have spoken many times to—the People’s Republic of China’s efforts to invest in infrastructure around the world that may have military purposes, including in this hemisphere.”
Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio denied the reports.
At a press conference in Havana on Thursday, he called them “totally untrue” and “slanders.”
“Slanders like these have been fabricated frequently by US officials,” he said, alleging that the reported spy base was being used to legitimize US sanctions on Cuba.
“Fallacies promoted with the malicious intention to justify the unprecedented reinforcement of the economic blockade, destabilization and the aggression against Cuba and deceive public opinion in the United States and around the world,” de Cossio added.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday avoided directly answering a question about reports on alleged plans to open a spy base in Cuba, saying it was “not aware” of the situation, while accusing the US of spying itself and of “spreading rumors.”
“The United States should reflect on itself and stop interfering in Cuba’s internal affairs under the banner of freedom, democracy and human rights,” spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular briefing.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the new intelligence about the facility.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio, a Republican, released a statement expressing concern about the reports.
We are deeply disturbed by reports that Havana and Beijing are working together to target the United States and our people. The United States must respond to China’s ongoing and brazen attacks on our nation’s security. We must be clear that it would be unacceptable for China to establish an intelligence facility within 100 miles of Florida and the United States, in an area also populated with key military installations and extensive maritime traffic. We urge the Biden administration to take steps to prevent this serious threat to our national security and sovereignty,” Rubio and Warner said.
The CIA declined to comment. CNN has reached out to the Chinese and Cuban embassies in Washington, DC.
The first source familiar with the intelligence noted that while an eavesdropping base on Cuba would be concerning, China has already established footholds inside the US – namely, secret police stations that the Biden administration has begun to crack down on.
The US also conducts spying missions near China, using reconnaissance aircraft that routinely engage in electronic eavesdropping. One of those US planes was recently intercepted by a Chinese fighter jet, in what the US described as a dangerous and unprofessional maneuver.
But the revelation about the potential Chinese outpost in Cuba comes as US-China relations have reached a low point, following the spy balloon incident and several aggressive maneuvers by Chinese aircraft and ships against US assets in the South China Sea.
The US has been trying to mend the relationship, and dispatched CIA Director Bill Burns to Beijing last month for talks with Chinese officials. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also expected to visit China in the coming weeks.
But last week, China’s defense chief refused a meeting request by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and warned the US to stop operating near Chinese waters and airspace.
“The best way to prevent this from happening is that military vessels and aircraft not come close to our waters and airspace,” Chinese defense minister Li Shangfu said in Singapore last week, referring to recent close calls between Chinese and US planes and ships. “Watch out for your own territorial waters and airspace, then there will not be any problems.”
The Biden administration has done little to try to improve relations with Cuba and has only resumed limited bilateral conversations on matters like migration. Following rapprochement efforts under the Obama administration, relations plummeted due to the so-called “Havana Syndrome” illness that impacted US diplomats posted in the Cuban capital and the Trump administration’s decision – during the final days of that administration – to re-list Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Cuba stresses China’s role in the economy
HAVANA, Cuba, (ACN) – Cuba ratified last Wednesday the effective role of China as a strategic economic partner in the island’s Social and Economic Development Program till 2030.
Tania Aguilar, vice-president of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce said that the Chinese participation in Cuban economy is of top priority, while new initiatives to set up more bilateral associations are in the works in key local sectors.
The official made her statements at the opening of a China-Cuba business forum in Havana attended by a large delegation from Shanghai Pudong.
Aguilar said encouraging the participation of Chinese capital in Cuba plus bilateral cooperation in the economic and commercial areas will help develop project to the benefit of the two countries.
The sectors represented at the forum included food, drinks, construction, tourism, culture, energy logistics and many others.
The Chinese counterpart is exploring possible trade and investment opportunities to boost bilateral commercial relations.lc.
Meanwhile, US organization act of solidarity with Cuba delivered approximately 800 tons of wheat flour donated to Cuba by the US organization The People’s Forum, and according to Manolo de los Santos, its executive director, many hands from all over the world offered solidarity help to achieve it.
The young friend of the Island, based in New York, denounced the genocide that constitutes the blockade of the US government against Cuba, and gave as an example that for this donation they talked to 14 different companies in the US and none dared to sell that flour, they had to look for others as far away as Turkey, when it is only 90 miles away from Cuba, he said.
That is genocide, it is an act of war and we as neighbor of the Cuban people want to affirm our position of peace, our position that we believe in the shared humanity of our countries, and we say to Joe Biden, who has months left in the White House, that it is time to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, and to begin the process of lifting the blockade against the Cuban people, Santos affirmed.
He explained that this campaign was made possible in large part by the donation of thousands of people in the United States, some donated one dollar, others donated thousands, but with the conviction to carry out another type of policy in favor of relations between Cuba and the United States, he assured and acknowledged the Martin Luther King Memorial Center, for the support and the relationship of many years of work and cooperation.
Manolo de los Santos added that this is the end of the project that arose more than four months ago, but they are committed to continue accompanying the Cuban people, and wondered once again about the reality of the blockade. The 800 tons of wheat flour will be destined for the western provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, Mayaquebe, Havana and Matanzas, as explained to the press by Anaira Cabrera Martinez, general director of industrial policy of the Ministry of Food Industry (Minal by its Spanish acronym).
Javier Francisco Aguiar, vice minister of Minal, thanked the US organization and the Let Cuba Live project for the donation of wheat flour, and said that it is not a symbolic act, it is real and tangible and influences the daily production of bread, 800 tons of flour are needed for the production of daily bread for the population in the country and also guarantee the health centers, children’s day care centers and other social sectors.
New Cuban radar site near US military base to aid China spying – report
CSIS calls site near Guantánamo a ‘powerful tool’ that will be able to monitor air and maritime activity of US military
Tue 2 Jul 2024
Satellite images appear to show that Cuba is building a new radar site to be capable of spying on the US’s nearby Guantánamo Bay naval base, in the latest upgrade to the country’s surveillance capabilities linked to China.
The base, under construction since 2021 but previously not publicly reported, is east of the city of Santiago de Cuba near the El Salao neighborhood, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report published on Monday and later referenced by the Wall Street Journal.
Cuban vice foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio denied that Cuba was harboring Chinese military interests on the island.
“[The] Wall Street Journal persists in launching an intimidation campaign related to #Cuba. Without citing a verifiable source or showing evidence, it seeks to scare the public with tales about Chinese military bases that do not exist and no one has seen, including the US embassy in Cuba,” de Cossio said on social media.
Cuba’s proximity to the US and its southern military bases makes it a good location for China, Washington’s top strategic rival, to seek to collect signals intelligence. The CSIS called the new site a “powerful tool” that once operational will be able to monitor air and maritime activity of the US military.
The facility, known as a circularly disposed antenna array with a diameter of approximately 130-200 meters, could be able to track signals as far as 3,000-8,000 nautical miles (3,452-9,206 miles) away, the CSIS said.
“Access to such an outpost would provide China with a highly strategic vantage point near Naval Station Guantanamo Bay,” it said, referring to the key US military base 45 miles (73km) east of Santiago, Cuba’s second largest city.
Such arrays were used heavily during the cold war, but Russia and the US have since decommissioned most of their sites in favor of more advanced technology, the CSIS said. However, the thinktank said China has been actively building new such arrays, including on reef outposts in the South China Sea.
Last year, Biden administration officials said Beijing has been spying from Cuba for years and made a push to upgrade its intelligence collection capabilities there beginning in 2019, allegations that both Beijing and Havana have denied.
State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel declined to comment on the report, but told a briefing on Tuesday that the US was “closely monitoring” China’s presence in Cuba.
“We know that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is going to keep trying to enhance its presence in Cuba and the United States is going to keep working to disrupt it,” Patel said without giving details.
The White House national security council and the US defense department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
China’s embassy in Washington said the US had repeatedly “hyped up” the idea of China’s spying and surveillance from Cuba.
“Such claims are nothing but slander,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.
The CSIS also said satellite images from March 2024 show Cuba’s largest active signals intelligence site at Bejucal, located in the hills near Havana and linked to Chinese intelligence activity for years, has undergone “major updates” in the past decade, calling it a “clear indication of an evolving mission set”.
“Collecting data on activities like military exercises, missile tests, rocket launches and submarine maneuvers would allow China to develop a more sophisticated picture of US military practices,” the CSIS said.
It said certain radar systems installed in Cuba in recent years are in range to monitor rocket launches from Cape Canaveral and Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center, a likely interest for China as it seeks to catch up to US space launch technology.
US Analytical Institute: radars in Cuba monitor the US military in the interests of the PRC
Bejucal, Cuba
The construction of a new radar is in full swing in Cuba, which will be spying on the nearby US naval base at Guantanamo Bay. . The construction of the observation site is confirmed by satellite images.
CSIS says the American military base using radar to carry out the interests of China. Construction of the base east of the city of Santiago de Cuba, near the El Salao region, began in 2021, the US think tank said in a report.
As a side note it is important to be aware that the largest Chinese population nearest to the US is Cuba since the 70's.
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