() — Cuba has agreed to allow China to build a spy facility on the island that could allow the Chinese to spy on electronic communications throughout the southeastern US, a source familiar with the intelligence told .
The US learned of the plan in recent weeks, the source said, and it is unclear whether China has already started building the surveillance facility.
It would not be the first time China has attempted to spy on US electronic communications, known as signals intelligence. A suspected Chinese spy balloon that transited the United States in February was capable of collecting intelligence signals and is believed to have transmitted them to Beijing in near real time, sources told at the time.
In that case, the United States took steps to protect sensitive locations and censor intelligence signals before shooting down the balloon. But it is not clear what the United States can do to prevent the construction of a Chinese spy facility in Cuba.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the new intelligence on the facility. has contacted the Chinese and Cuban embassies in Washington for comment.
The source familiar with intelligence noted that while a spy base in Cuba would be worrisome, China has already established footholds inside the US, specifically secret police stations that the Biden administration has begun to dismantle.
The United States also carries out espionage missions near China, using reconnaissance planes that routinely conduct electronic eavesdropping. One such US plane was recently intercepted by a Chinese fighter in what the United States described as an unprofessional and dangerous maneuver.
But the disclosure about the possible 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 planes and ships against US assets in the Sea of South China.
The US has tried to improve relations and last month sent CIA director Bill Burns to Beijing for talks with Chinese officials. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also expected to visit China in the coming weeks.
But last week, the Chinese defense chief rejected a meeting request by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, warning the United States to stop operating near Chinese waters and airspace.
“The best way to prevent this from happening is to keep military ships and aircraft out of our waters and airspace,” Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu said last week in Singapore, referring to the recent rapprochement between planes. and Chinese and American ships. “Take care of your own territorial waters and airspace, then there will be no problems.”
The Biden administration has done little to try to improve relations with Cuba, resuming only limited bilateral talks on issues such as migration. Following the rapprochement efforts under the Obama administration, relations plummeted due to the disease called “Havana syndrome” that affected US diplomats stationed in the Cuban capital and the decision of the Trump administration —during the last days of that government—to return Cuba to the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
