China denies new report linking CCP to four sites in Cuba allegedly used to spy on the US

China is denying a new report linking it to four bases in Cuba that a think tank says allows the CCP to spy on the U.S. 

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a report last week detailing facilities in Cuba that it claims China may be using to gather signal intelligence (SIGINT) on the U.S. 

“The cooperation between China and Cuba is aboveboard, not targeting any third party, and does not allow any malicious slander from third parties,” Chinese foreign minister Mao Ning told reporters on Wednesday. 

Cuban foreign minister Carlos de Cossio claimed reports of Chinese spying hubs in Cuba originate from “Cuba’s enemies” in the U.S. “as a way of justifying the criminal policy of economic aggression. It is absolutely false.”

CSIS analyzed over a dozen “sites of interest” in Cuba and four stuck out as most likely to be supporting China and its spying ambitions. 

“These sites have undergone observable upgrades in recent years, even as Cuba has faced increasingly dire economic prospects that have drawn it closer to China,” the report’s authors said. 

(CSIS/Hidden Reach )

Each of the four sites had “observable SIGINT instrumentation,” clear physical security infrastructure and other signs of intelligence collection. 

One such station located on a hill overlooking Havana, Bejucal, has been suspected of ties to Chinese intelligence for years. The complex gained notoriety for housing Soviet missiles during the Cuban missile crisis. 

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During the 2016 presidential debates, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called on Cuba to “[kick] out this Chinese listening station in Bejucal.”

According to CSIS findings, satellite imagery shows that the site was active as of March 2024 and had been for some time. There are at least five entrances to underground facilities at the base, but what the facilities contain could not be discerned by satellite imagery. Antennas dot the ground, including satellite antennas used for intercepting satellite communications. 

With Havana situated just 100 miles off the coast of Florida, the site could potentially be used to collect data on U.S. rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. 

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(CSIS/Hidden Reach )

(CSIS/Hidden Reach/Maxar 2024)

The U.S. and China are locked in a space race and rocket launches that deliver U.S. satellites to space will likely garner a high level of interest within the CCP. 

On another site on the opposite side of the island, east of the city of Santiago de Cuba, a large radio signal finding technology project is under construction, one capable of detecting signals between 3,000 and 8,000 nautical miles away. 

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Cuba has a history of allowing U.S. adversaries to use its soil to snoop on U.S. communications. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union operated a SIGINT facility at the Lourdes Signals Intelligence Complex near Havana. That site monitored U.S. satellites and intercepted sensitive military and commercial telecommunications. 

In recent decades, the alliance between China and Cuba has grown – and China has provided around $7.8 billion in development financing to the island nation.