By Francisco Delgado Rodríguez.on May 9, 2025
“Hey the Chinese are Spying on Me!!”
The Cuban government has had to come out and deny, once again, the bizarre story about the existence of Chinese military bases in Cuba. The island’s foreign minister reacted on social media to the news that, to the surprise of some, this was reported by CNN, which could well have activated its correspondent in Havana to verify, once again, the absurdity of such nonsense.
Cuban Foreign Minister rejects new manipulation against Cuba
The story of Chinese military bases in a digital combat scramble is the result of an old nightmare perpetuated by supposed experts who speak and dress circumspectly and swarm to the dictates and needs of Washington.
The issue is taken up from time to time, as the situation dictates; on this occasion by one of the usual suspects in the unconventional war against the Cuban people, the corrupt legislator Carlos Giménez, branded a traitor by his constituents and migrant relatives in Florida.
In an act of pure propaganda, Giménez has now taken center stage in a new production, in the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, on May 6.
At this point, it seems obvious that the anti-Cuban faction in Congress and their super secretary, Mr. Rubio, who only needs to be named pope, as Vice President Pence jokingly remarked, are trying to get the attention of the White House tenant, eager to impose cruel new sanctions on the Cuban family.
Since January 20, they have tried several motivations to divert President Trump’s attention from the tremendous international problems he is dealing with. The justifications have ranged from the endless campaign against Cuban medical cooperation, which does not seem to have gone well recently thanks to Caribbean leaders, to the insistence on cutting off all exchanges or ties with the Rebel Island, i.e., zero remittances, zero flights, zero everything.
Mr. Rubio, for his part, dusted off an old story about an alleged fugitive from US justice, claiming that she has been living in Cuba since 1976. Say what you will, anyone who reads this and already has enough problems with the present would say, why remind them of problems from 50 years ago?
Shadow puppets in military attire
Now it’s the turn of the “sinister Chinese bases in Cuba.” Of course, with the confrontation with China in full swing, what better timing than to associate Cuba with something as reprehensible as installing military bases in a warlike manner, not for tariffs but for electronic espionage, they say.
Obviously, in order to lend credibility to something that has been systematically denied by both the Cuban and Chinese authorities, it was necessary for old hawks from the US academic world to insist on the dangers looming over US national security.
Reappearing for the occasion is geopolitical expert Ryan Berg, who serves as director of the Latin America program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The CSIS has been promoting this hypothesis about the bases for years.
Berg, known for his anti-Cuban and reactionary positions, is a promoter of the concept of nearshoring (close to the border), i.e., that US companies based in Asia should return to nearby countries; in other words, something very similar to what President Trump is demanding, hoping that they will reopen on US soil.
Their “research” is supported by other scholars with deep-rooted anti-Chinese positions, such as Matthew P. Funaiole, Brian Hart, Aidan Powers-Riggs, and Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. The latter is an expert in imagery, who in the case of the “bases” in Cuba confuses them with civilian ETECSA facilities or simple dwellings.
Accompanying this legend from the outset are Gordon Guthrie Chang, also known for his anti-China rhetoric, the nefarious and washed-up Senator Ted Cruz, John Bolton, remembered for the worst reasons, Trump’s National Security Advisor at the time, and of course, Mr. Rubio.
The legend repeats and recycles itself. A little history
The accusations date back as far as 2010 when the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute reported that it was monitoring the China-Cuba relationship, although without going as far as the base fable.
The issue resurfaced in 2019, during the first Trump administration, when declassified intelligence reports were made public, claiming that an espionage unit was operating in Cuba, without specifying what that was, leaving the door open to speculation and its cousin, information manipulation.
Another chapter was unfolded by The Wall Street Journal in the summer of 2023, in the midst of the Biden administration, which was also confronting China in its own way.
True to its ultra-right editorial line, it argued that anonymous sources indicated that China and Cuba had a secret agreement to build an electronic espionage base, adding in another publication that there would also be a military training base on the north coast of Cuba.
Somewhat compelled by the seriousness of the Journal’s report, John Kirby, then spokesperson for the National Security Council, admitted the existence of certain reports, without providing details, only clarifying that they were inaccurate. In other words, he virtually dismissed the allegations as insignificant.
Of course, in this context, Mr. Rubio, then a senator, could not be absent. He signed a statement along with Mark Warner, also a senator, both leaders at the time of the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressing their concern about the alleged Chinese facilities.
To continue the saga, once again, the CSIS published another report in December 2024, with the expectation that they could count on Trump for any anti-Cuban action. This report indicated that technological improvements had been detected at the bases, adding a fifth base near Santiago de Cuba.
Throughout this time, experts and former US intelligence officials have questioned both the CSIS reports and the accusations themselves.
Scholars such as Evan Ellis (Center for the National Security Studies, US Army War College) ), took for granted the improbability that China would proceed to install military bases in Cuba, considering it a “significant escalation” that is consistent with the context, even casting doubt on whether the Asian country has the capabilities for such facilities. For his part, Chris Simmons (former head of counterintelligence, US Defense Intelligence Agency ), although he believes in the history of Chinese espionage, ruled out the possibility of military installations on Cuban territory.
Other representatives of the US academic world, such as William LeoGrande (an expert on US-Cuba relations at American University), Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, and Jorge Duany, professor at Florida International University, give zero credence to these hypotheses, in some cases going so far as to declare them far-fetched and linked to the US-Cuba confrontation rather than to real situations. To make matters worse, another CSIS researcher, James Lewis, has stated that there is no evidence of Chinese facilities in Cuba.
A quick review of the available information, using artificial intelligence, leads to a conclusion that reflects the prevailing common sense and the prevailing information, all of which agree that to date there has been no verifiable evidence that Cuba has hosted Chinese military bases.
Whether it is the CSIS or the Miami political rabble, they have forgotten in this story that there is a foreign military base in Cuba, against the will of an entire people, the US base in Guantanamo, the only place in Cuba where torture is practiced and where migrants are treated like criminals and held without due process.
One last observation, a curiosity: it seems that the enemies of the Revolution have run out of initiative and creativity in presenting new pretexts. As for the Chinese bases, we will have to see how Trump’s current clash with China evolves, and whether it evolves towards a certain sanity for the good of both economies and the world. In short, once again, those mentioned could be left hanging.
We shall see.
Appealing to the proverbial Cuban sense of humor, the news has generated endless memes, the most conclusive being that the only bases made in China in Cuba are those located on the grounds of baseball stadiums.
Source: Cuba en Resumen