China isn’t even trying to hide it anymore…
According to a shocking report from The Wall Street Journal, China has reached a secret agreement with Cuba to establish an eavesdropping facility just 100 miles offshore from Florida. China will be able to listen in on communications across the southeastern U.S. and monitor ship activity off the Florida coast.
Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, says America has found itself in a new Cold War.
“The Chinese will have a spy base in Cuba just 100 miles away from Florida. Anyone who says we aren’t in a new Cold War is totally naive,” Waltz tweeted along with the WSJ report.
You may be asking “how could this happen?” Well, it’s simple: China is dropping billions of dollars on Cuba. The most shocking part of the deal is the Biden Administration’s reaction; it’s actually concerned about the situation (unlike recent spy balloons).
“While I cannot speak to this specific report, we are well aware of—and have spoken many times to—the People’s Republic of China’s efforts to invest in infrastructure around the world that may have military purposes, including in this hemisphere,” John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, said. “We monitor it closely, take steps to counter it, and remain confident that we are able to meet all our security commitments at home, in the region, and around the world.”
But Kirby also told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that the report is “not accurate” —so maybe we are gearing up for spy balloon 2.0.
According to WSJ, “U.S. officials described the intelligence on the planned Cuba site, apparently gathered in recent weeks, as convincing. They said the base would enable China to conduct signals intelligence, known in the espionage world as sigint, which could include the monitoring of a range of communications, including emails, phone calls and satellite transmissions.”
“Establishing this facility signals a new, escalatory phase in China’s broader defense strategy. It’s a bit of a game changer,” said Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a national-security think tank in Washington.
“The selection of Cuba is also intentionally provocative.”
Mr. Singleton is correct.
China is our biggest rival; they aren’t playing games. Let’s hope the Biden Administration can competently navigate this dangerous development.
