Chinese-Cuban Connection... Is China Listening to America's "Broadcasts"?

THE CURRENT SITUATION REPORT

For over sixty years, there has been a lot more to Cuba then rum and cigars. 

In the past, besides a parking lot for Russian missiles during the US showdown with the Soviets in the early sixties, it was the catalyst and consultant for revolutions in South America and Africa. It also is the communist country that experienced the longest lasting single dictator in the world—Castro, and has engaged in significant hostile intelligence activities within our country. It has an excellent intelligence service, the Dirección de Inteligencia, the DI.

While travel restrictions have now eased somewhat, so that Americans can more easily visit this small impoverished oppressed country to buy cigars and see very old cars, another country has been welcomed with wide open arms—China.

It needs to be remembered that unlike Russia, China and Cuba never strayed from Communism; they were and are, old school.

China is the second largest trading partner with Cuba, and a major investor.

Chinese investment in Cuban infrastructure and development of its energy sector doesn’t come free of course. While the sinking economy and rampant inflation of Cuba does not make it a very attractive economic partner, its proximate location to the United States puts a lot of lipstick on this pig, with respect to Chinese spying efforts.

One of the most important sources of intelligence information is COMINT, or communications intelligence. There’s no risk to agents, no arrests of assets, and it is literally conducted right there out in the open, able to be set up anywhere you can plug something in and put up an antenna--and it is the reception capability of the Cuban location that attracts the Chinese with open wallets and open ears.

There are at least four potential communication intercept sites useful to the Chinese in Cuba, an island just 100 miles away from the US. Further, there is the US prison facility on Guantanamo, on the island itself, that can offer much useful information about US military activities, especially since there are two undersea communication cables that belong to the US and connected to Guantanamo that are on Cuban territory.

There is also the consideration that the Southern United States is brimming with military bases, including a variety of Special Operation facilities. There’s Homestead in Florida, along with Hulbert Field and MacDill Air force Base. There are a variety of Special Forces related bases in Georgia, and Washington D.C. is only a hop, skip, and electromagnetic jump away from Cuba.

  The Fab Four

So what are the four locations in Cuba where Beijing’s finest can listen to America’s “broadcasts”?

First up is Bejucal. It is the largest COMINT site on the island, and it has been around a long time. It has the capability to track and listen in on American satellites, and rocket launches from Florida, which the Chinese are very interested in. They invented rockets about a thousand years ago, and they like to keep up.

Then there is a new facility at El Salao, outside of the Cuban city of Santiago de Cuba, which has intercept capability ranges in the thousands of miles. This location just happens to be near a major infrastructure improvement project of the Chinese, and perhaps some of the construction engineers from China are also “engine ears” at the intercept location.

A third location is Wajay, with a dozen antennas, and they probably aren’t all tuned in to the Yankee game, although they may be listening to Yankee military communications.

The fourth is at Calabazar, and among its diverse capabilities, space communications are likely given its antennae type and array.

  Can You Hear Me Now?

Even though anything militarily or diplomatically important is going to be encrypted and therefore very difficult to understand, and fiber optic communications aren’t as easy as microwave transmissions to break into, the arcane art of traffic analysis by intelligence agencies, or in other words observing and recording the frequency (as in number of times) the location of the originating signal, and the length of the transmission provides, or can provide significant intelligence value.

Obviously, if something naughty or nice may be happening, there will be an uptick in messages and their length, which can be an indication of what that activity may be. Major military exercises, or even the reallocation of military assets as a precursor to an invasion are going to generate a lot of communication traffic.

In times of international crisis, diplomatic communication traffic is going to significantly increase in number and duration.

 Why Should You Care

China, the greatest adversary of the United States is not only upping its technology game, and significantly increasing its blue water navy, it is ramping up its intelligence efforts against our country, not only for obvious reasons such as industrial espionage and every day intelligence gathering against a potentially hostile force, but with an eye towards an upcoming direct military conflict, originating, but not necessarily limited to Taiwan and contested Pacific regions.

Especially with the incoming Trump administration that has vowed to Tariff the hell out of Chinese products, the Chinese have, besides a military interest, a significant diplomatic and economic interest in monitoring all of our communications, and Cuba is the ideal place to do that.

Of even potential greater threat, Cuba has the potential to be a staging area for Chinese military assets, and having Beijing’s bombs and boats a hundred miles from our shores, could give us pause in any negotiations with the Chinese, and in any conflict. The likelihood of this will increase the closer the world gets to a Beijing-Taiwan showdown.

Further, Cuba has been, and with Chinese assistance, can once again be a source of upheaval and regime change throughout South and Central America, via election interference, supporting of various anti-American groups within our own country, and (in an area where they are not exactly inexperienced), increasing the flow of illicit drugs within the United States.