China's plans for spy station in Cuba may go beyond intelligence gathering'

WASHINGTON: As top US lawmakers remain persistent in urging Joe Biden’s administration to brief Congress on the surveillance station China is supposedly building in Cuba, some American analysts say that Beijing’s plan goes far beyond just intelligence gathering, Voice of America (VOA) reported.

According to these analysts, the Chinese military may operate throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to obstruct US military operations or even launch an attack on the US mainland in case a war in Taiwan breaks out.

On June 25, Blinken said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Washington had expressed its concerns to Beijing and Havana and had had some success in stopping China from constructing military outposts abroad.

However, very soon on June 26, an opinion piece in China’s official newspaper, Global Times, described the US alarm as “the disinformation campaign hyping up the so-called Chinese spy base in Cuba.

Gordon Chang, a renowned senior scholar at the think tank Gatestone Institute, cautioned that the establishment of a Chinese station in Cuba could have military and strategic repercussions for US homeland security, according to VOA.

According to Chang, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army would benefit from “shorter flight times”–i.e., less warning time–if nuclear missile silos were placed in Cuba.

Separately, another analyst and professor of electronic and radio engineering at the City University of London, David Stupples told VOA Mandarin that even if China is unable to station many troops in Cuba, Beijing’s outpost there could collect intelligence from US submarines.

China allegedly moved into American territory to further its own economic and political goals and gain access to vital minerals like lithium, copper, and rare earths as well as resources like coal and oil, VOA reported.

According to Evan Ellis, a professor of Latin American studies at the US Army War College who focuses on the region’s relationships with China said that an establishment of a spy station would open up “the opportunity for a semipermanent presence that increases the level of military collaboration and coordination” between China and Cuba.

According to the reports, which first appeared in The Wall Street Journal citing unnamed intelligence officials, China had agreed to pay financially hard-pressed Cuba several billion dollars for the spy facility, which would allow China to collect electronic communications from throughout the southeastern United States, where numerous military bases are located, VOA reported.

Earlier this year, the US. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, but not before it travelled the breadth of the United States and flew over numerous military bases.

Moreover, last weekend, a Chinese warship abruptly sailed across the bow of a US destroyer as it passed through international waters in the Taiwan Strait. The US said the incident forced the American ship to slow down to avoid a collision.