‘New Cold War’: CCP Spy Base Planned for Cuba, US Drones for Taiwan

Chinese soldiers outside the Forbidden City in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2020. Nicholas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

China’s communist regime is reportedly preparing to establish a spy base in Cuba while the United States seeks to send drones and real-time intelligence to Taiwan. One U.S. lawmaker has described the situation as a “new Cold War.”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, has reached a secret deal with Cuba’s communist regime to establish a spy base there.

As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which cited only anonymous sources, the base will be used by communist authorities and could include activities such as eavesdropping on American phone calls, emails, and satellite communications.

The proposed facility would be built just 100 miles off the coast of Florida, potentially allowing the regime to illicitly collect electronic communications from a vast swath of the southeastern United States, including passing ships and military facilities.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department didn’t address the report’s allegations directly but told The Epoch Times that the department is monitoring and working to counter CCP efforts to develop military infrastructure in the Western Hemisphere.

“We 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,” the spokesperson said in an email.

“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.”

The Journal report cited unnamed officials who said that the CCP had agreed to pay Cuba billions of dollars for the opportunity to build the spy base in America’s backyard.

The move is a direct challenge to U.S. security and is reminiscent of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. At that time, the Soviet Union deployed nuclear-capable missiles to Cuba. The United States responded by quarantining the island nation.

That crisis was widely seen as the closest the two powers ever came to nuclear war. The two nations eventually backed down, however, with the Soviets removing the missiles from Cuba and the United States removing its missiles from Turkey.

The United States didn’t reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba, first severed in 1961, until the Obama administration removed the nation from its State Sponsors of Terrorism list in 2015.

US to Send Drones, Intel to Taiwan

As the CCP moves to directly spy on the U.S. homeland, the United States is positioning new security assets to the Indo-Pacific.

The nation is slated to deliver four drones to Taiwan, according to a new report by the Financial Times, and will facilitate a real-time intelligence-sharing operation between the three powers.

General Atomics, a defense contractor, will deliver four MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones to Taiwan in 2025. Combined with the intelligence-sharing program, the capability will dramatically improve Taiwan’s ability to locate, track, and destroy hostile ships in the event of a war with China.

Taiwan’s forces will be trained on how to use the system alongside their American and Japanese counterparts.

The capability would also give the island a unique insight into the CCP’s military maneuvers around the island and throughout the first island chain, which stretches north to south and separates China from the open Pacific.

Directly integrating Taiwan into U.S. and allied capabilities is likely to be seen as an escalatory move by the CCP, which could retaliate with economic and diplomatic measures against the island, the United States, or Japan.

The CCP claims that Taiwan is a rogue province of China, though the regime has never controlled the territory. Communist leaders have vowed to unite the island with the mainland by any means necessary, and have directly threatened war to achieve this goal.

Taiwan boasts a robust democratic government and a thriving market economy.

The United States formally recognizes the CCP’s position but doesn’t endorse it. Instead, the nation maintains only unofficial relations with Taiwan while simultaneously upholding the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which guarantees it will provide the island with the weapons it needs for self-defense.

The United States has moved closer to Taiwan in recent years and now provides limited numbers of troops to the island to train local forces, even as the CCP increases its efforts to militarily intimidate the island.

Biden Seeks Talks With CCP

While CCP hostility to Taiwan’s new drones is a given, it’s unclear how the Biden administration will respond to the development of the CCP spy base in Cuba, if at all.

The administration is currently engaged in a campaign to engage with the CCP diplomatically and has consistently sought talks with the regime, even as CCP aggression against the United States grows. The CCP, meanwhile, has cut virtually all military-to-military communications with the United States.

CIA Director William Burns went to Beijing on a secret trip last month as part of the administration’s efforts. The administration also sent Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, to Beijing on June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Select Committee on the CCP Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) condemned the trip as an “outrage” and snub to the regime’s victims.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also widely expected to make the trip to Beijing soon, fulfilling a Biden administration priority trip that was temporarily canceled when the regime sent a spy balloon over the United States in February.

The Epoch Times requested comment from the White House but didn’t receive a response by press time.