By Entorno | 2025-05-23

WASHINGTON -- China is rapidly expanding its space espionage capabilities with four intelligence bases strategically placed in Cuba, designed to monitor activities across the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Analysts confirmed the scale of this expansion during a May 6 hearing before the US House Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, titled "Beijing's Air, Space, and Maritime Surveillance from Cuba: A Growing Threat to the Homeland."

Ryan C. Berg, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)'s Americas Program, and Leland Lazarus, associate director of National Security at Florida International University's Jack D. Gordon Institute of Public Policy, presented key findings from their respective institutions.

Berg highlighted a recent CSIS report, "At the Doorstep: A Snapshot of New Activity at Cuban Spy Sites," which outlines how China is using Cuba as a forward operating base for its surveillance efforts in the Western Hemisphere.

"New satellite imagery from April 15, 2025, shows major developments at the site in recent months. At an existing antenna field on the northern side of the complex, the land has been excavated, and six pole antennas have been removed," according to the report from CSIS published on May 6.

"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," CSIS noted, referring to a site outside Havana.

Bejucal has long operated as a "Cuban signals intelligence (SIGINT) site near Havana, long rumored to have ties to China," it continued.

The report called Bejucal "Cuba's largest active signals intelligence site and said the site "has undergone major updates over the past decade, indicating an evolving mission set."

'Every dimension of Chinese strategy'

China has turned Cuba into a strategic hub for intelligence operations targeting the United States and Latin America, Lazarus testified to the House subcommittee. He outlined Beijing's growing presence on the island and its long-term ambitions in the Western Hemisphere.

"In Cuba, we see every dimension of Chinese strategy on display," he said in written testimony. "If Beijing is willing to establish listening posts, upgrade ports, and export authoritarian technologies to a country just 90 miles from Florida, then we must treat this challenge with the urgency and strategic clarity it deserves," he said.

"China is strategically embedding itself in the Western Hemisphere not just through trade and investment [but] also through ports, space, and espionage," he concluded.

Lazarus described the effort as part of a broader Chinese strategy for influence in the region, combining investments, diplomatic outreach and security partnerships across Latin America and the Caribbean.

China's Cuba spy facilities

The new investigation by CSIS confirms and expands on its report last July, "Secret Signals: Decoding China's Intelligence Activities in Cuba." The findings reveal four suspected Chinese SIGINT sites across the island, all likely supporting Beijing's efforts to monitor the United States and Latin America.

The largest of these sites is in Bejucal, as described above.

Bejucal hosted Soviet nuclear missiles during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and today houses Cuba's most active SIGINT complex.

A second, previously undisclosed site sits near El Salao, on the eastern edge of Santiago de Cuba. Satellite imagery from March 2024 shows a massive CDAA like the one at Bejucal.

The third site, in Wajay, lies less than 10km north of Bejucal. Though smaller, the facility shows signs of Chinese involvement in electronic surveillance operations. CSIS researchers cite visible security perimeters and guard posts as evidence of military or intelligence activity.

A fourth base operates in Calabazar, on Havana's outskirts. This area also hosts a solar park built in 2012 by the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation, another piece of Chinese strategic infrastructure in the region.

China watches US launches

The location and design of Chinese intelligence bases in Cuba suggest they can track satellites and intercept downlink communications, CSIS said in the 2024 report. One system, likely installed at the Bejucal site in recent years, sits "within range to monitor rocket launches from Cape Canaveral and NASA's Kennedy Space Center," CSIS wrote.

China is particularly interested in studying launches by SpaceX, including the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy reusable boosters, as it works to narrow the technological gap with the United States in space launch capabilities.

China's global military ambitions are well documented and that Cuba offers the People's Liberation Army an "attractive foothold" in the Caribbean, CSIS concluded last year.

An unclassified US intelligence assessment released in February 2024 reinforces this warning, listing Cuba among "several countries where China is looking to establish military installations," the 2024 report said.