U.S. adversaries China, Iran and Russia are getting closer with Cuba. China, specifically, is “in talks with Havana to set up a joint military training center on the island just 100 miles from the U.S. coast, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing current and former U.S. officials familiar with the plan” reports the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The WSJ reported the bedfellows could lead to an unprecedented and permanent stationing of Chinese troops and intelligence, resulting in deeper insight into U.S. continental military assets.
China has been ramping up its global military and logistics footprint through a program titled “Project 141.” Thus far, the Chinese Communist Party has been able to establish military sites such as a Chinese navy base in Cambodia and an obscure military facility near a port in the United Arab Emirates, a former U.S. official said, according to the WSJ.
However, a presence in Cuba would be the first “Project 141” site in the western hemisphere, and closest to the United States. Information coming from the Biden Administration is inconsistent and confusing, at best.
The Biden administration characterized a June 8 report from the WSJ that described Chinese plans to establish a signals intelligence collection outpost on Cuba as “inaccurate”, without providing specifics. White House officials disclosed newly-declassified intelligence days later showing that China has established intelligence collection operations for years and conducted at least one major upgrade to existing facilities in 2019…
…Some officials say China’s relationship with Cuba and plans to upgrade military cooperation is meant to mirror how the U.S. approaches Taiwan, an island China claims as sovereign territory sitting roughly 100 miles from the mainland, according to the WSJ. The U.S. invests heavily in building up Taiwan’s military and has dispatched National Guard units to train Taiwanese troops.
