As revealed Tuesday in a House hearing, China has built a surveillance site in Cuba to spy on the United States.
This from features.csis.org.
Recent commercial satellite imagery shows new construction underway at a known Cuban signals intelligence (SIGINT) site near Havana, long rumored to have ties to China. The addition of what appears to be a circularly disposed antenna array (CDAA) at Bejucal would expand the site’s capabilities to spy on the United States and other countries in the region.
Satellite imagery of another key Cuban site shows a halt in construction, raising new questions about the scope and direction of Cuba’s SIGINT efforts—and their possible connection to China.
These developments provide new insights into activity first analyzed in a 2024 CSIS report.
Situated outside of the capital, near the town of Bejucal, is Cuba’s largest active SIGINT site. The facility has a long history, and is near a site that housed Soviet nuclear weapons during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Since the end of the Cold War, Bejucal has been widely rumored to be part of China’s intelligence-gathering ambitions on the island. U.S. congressional testimony and unclassified government documents have suggested the site has ties to China, and reporting in English and Spanish-language outlets has also linked it to China. During the 2016 U.S. presidential primary debates, then-Senator Marco Rubio called on Havana to “[kick] out this Chinese listening station in Bejucal.”
CSIS analysis of satellite imagery from March 2024 showed the site had undergone major updates over the past decade, indicating an evolving mission set. Multiple antenna fields were visible across the expansive complex, and entrances to underground facilities could also be seen on the southern end of the site. Adding to its capabilities, a new radome was installed within the complex in 2014, which may conceal a radar or other system for conducting electronic surveillance.
No doubt, President Trump does not like this China build up in Cuba and is already looking for countermeasures to render the site useless.
