Is China Building Spy Bases in Cuba?

'Images captured from space show the growth of Cuba's electronic eavesdropping stations,' reported the Wall Street Journal this week, citing a new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
But they added that the stations 'are believed to be linked to China,' including previously-unreported construction about 70 miles from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. (The Journal had previously reported China and Cuba were 'negotiating closer defense and intelligence ties, including establishing a new joint military training facility on the island and an eavesdropping facility.')

At the time, the Journal reported that Cuba and China were already jointly operating eavesdropping stations on the island, according to U.S. officials, who didn't disclose their locations. It couldn't be determined which, if any, of those are included in the sites covered by the CSIS report.

The concern about the stations, former officials and analysts say, is that China is using Cuba's geographical proximity to the southeastern U.S. to scoop up sensitive electronic communications from American military bases, space-launch facilities, and military and commercial shipping. Chinese facilities on the island 'could also bolster China's use of telecommunications networks to spy on U.S. citizens,' said Leland Lazarus, an expert on China-Latin America relations at Florida International University... Authors of the CSIS report, after analyzing years' worth of satellite imagery, found that Cuba has significantly upgraded and expanded its electronic spying facilities in recent years and pinpointed four sites — at Bejucal, El Salao, Wajay and Calabazar... 'These are active locations with an evolving mission set,' said Matthew Funaiole, a senior follow at CSIS and the report's chief author.

The CSIS web site shows some of the satellite images. 'Pinpointing the specific targets of these assets is nearly impossible,' they add — but since Cuba has no space program, 'the types of space-tracking capabilities observed are likely intended to monitor the activities of other nations (like the United States) with a presence in orbit.' While China's own satellites could also benefit from a North America-based groundstation for communications, the Cuban facilities 'would also provide the ability to monitor radio traffic and potentially intercept data delivered by U.S. satellites as they pass over highly sensitive military sites across the southern United States.'

The think tank points out that one possibly-installed system would be within range to monitor rocket launches from Cape Canaveral and NASA's Kennedy Space Center. 'Studying these launches — particularly those of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy reusable first-stage booster rocket systems — is likely of keen interest to China as it attempts to catch up to U.S. leadership in space launch technology.'

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