China’s Cuba base a threat to US

Better than “nothing to see here” insouciance is needed from the Biden administration following reports that China is upgrading a spy base in Cuba, 167km from the US mainland. It may be, as the White House said in a statement last Saturday, that the intelligence-gathering facility has been operational since 2019, when Donald Trump was president. But that does not justify the Biden administration dismissing updated reports about it as “not a new development”.

Memories of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that brought the US and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war may have faded. But communist Cuba’s strategic importance as a potential base for hostile activities targeted at the US and its allies has not. Washington must not forget that reality as it seeks to deal with an enhanced base that would provide Beijing with eavesdropping access to military, commercial and other communications in the US southeast, where dozens of military bases are located.

Among them are the headquarters for US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East and parts of Central and South Asia, as well as US Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida, and US Southern Command based in Miami.

A White House statement said when the Biden administration came to office in January 2021, officials were briefed on China’s efforts to expand its military and intelligence presence in the Atlantic Ocean, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and the Indo-Pacific. China “will keep trying to enhance its presence in Cuba, and we will keep working to disrupt it”. The Wall Street Journal noted: “A Chinese base with advanced military and intelligence capability in the US’s backyard could be an unprecedented new threat.” The two top politicians on the US Senate intelligence committee, Democrat chairman Mark Warner and Republican vice-chairman Marco Rubio, are “disturbed by reports that Havana and Beijing are working together to target the US and our people”. To date, China’s only declared foreign military base is in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. But it is building seaports in Cambodia, Pakistan and United Arab Emirates that US officials believe are about creating a network. The Cuba base is part of the strategic plan.