June 29, 2023

China Spy Station Revelation Is a Wake-Up Call to Rethink US Embargo on Cuba

By: Daniel Bonomo

In early June, the Biden administration revealed that China has operated an electronic eavesdropping station in Cuba since 2019 and has spent several billion dollars to upgrade it. The revelation sparked a bipartisan uproar, as a Chinese intelligence facility only 90 miles from the Florida coast could intercept commercial and military communications from several southeastern U.S. states.

Cuban neutrality is a diplomatic loss for China.

The incident evoked memories of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, but China poses a different challenge than the Soviet Union did – one predicated on increasing its economic clout in the Western hemisphere. Washington’s policy of economically isolating Cuba, unchanged since the 1960s, has left a vacuum that China emphatically filled in exchange for diplomatic and potential military support.

Read the full article in The Diplomat.

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