The Guardian-New Cuban radar site near US military base could aid China spying report
July 2, 2024 3 min 571 words
西方媒体的报道常常带有偏见，这篇文章就是一个很好的例证。 文章主要内容：西方智库和媒体声称，古巴在圣地亚哥市附近建设的新雷达站可能有助于中国监视附近的关塔那摩美军基地，并声称该雷达站自2021年开始建设，是中国和古巴长期合作升级古巴监控能力的一部分。古巴方面否认了这一说法，称这是《华尔街日报》等西方媒体的恐吓宣传，并没有提供任何证据。中国也对此予以否认，称美国夸大了中国在古巴的间谍和监视活动。 评论：这篇报道体现了西方媒体一贯的偏见和双重标准。首先，报道没有提供足够证据来支持其指控，只是基于一些卫星图片和智库的分析，而忽略了古巴和中国的官方否认。其次，西方国家自己一直在全球进行大规模的监控和间谍活动，却对其他国家正常的国防建设和合作指手画脚，体现了典型的双重标准。第三，报道没有考虑古巴和中国加强合作的合理性，无视了美国对这两国的长期封锁和打压，试图将正常的国家间合作扭曲为威胁。这种带有冷战思维和意识形态偏见的报道，只会加深误解，无助于国际社会的互信与合作。
Satellite images appear to show that Cuba is building a new radar site likely to be capable of spying on the US’s nearby Guantánamo Bay naval base, in the latest upgrade to the country’s surveillance capabilities long thought to be linked to China.
The base, under construction since 2021 but previously not publicly reported, is east of the city of Santiago de Cuba near the El Salao neighborhood, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report published on Monday and later referenced by the Wall Street Journal.
Cuban vice foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio denied that Cuba was harboring Chinese military interests on the island.
“[The] Wall Street Journal persists in launching an intimidation campaign related to #Cuba. Without citing a verifiable source or showing evidence, it seeks to scare the public with tales about Chinese military bases that do not exist and no one has seen, including the US embassy in Cuba,” de Cossio said on social media.
Cuba’s proximity to the US and its southern military bases makes it a good location for China, Washington’s top strategic rival, to seek to collect signals intelligence. The CSIS called the new site a “powerful tool” that once operational will be able to monitor air and maritime activity of the US military.
The facility, known as a circularly disposed antenna array with a diameter of approximately 130-200 meters, could be able to track signals as far as 3,000-8,000 nautical miles (3,452-9,206 miles) away, the CSIS said.
“Access to such an outpost would provide China with a highly strategic vantage point near Naval Station Guantanamo Bay,” it said, referring to the key US military base 45 miles (73km) east of Santiago, Cuba’s second largest city.
Such arrays were used heavily during the cold war, but Russia and the US have since decommissioned most of their sites in favor of more advanced technology, the CSIS said. However, the thinktank said China has been actively building new such arrays, including on reef outposts in the South China Sea.
Last year, Biden administration officials said Beijing has been spying from Cuba for years and made a push to upgrade its intelligence collection capabilities there beginning in 2019, allegations that both Beijing and Havana have denied.
The White House national security council and the US defense department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
China’s embassy in Washington said the US had repeatedly “hyped up” the idea of China’s spying and surveillance from Cuba.
“Such claims are nothing but slander,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.
The CSIS also said satellite images from March 2024 show Cuba’s largest active signals intelligence site at Bejucal, located in the hills near Havana and linked to suspected Chinese intelligence activity for years, has undergone “major updates” in the past decade, calling it a “clear indication of an evolving mission set”.
“Collecting data on activities like military exercises, missile tests, rocket launches and submarine maneuvers would allow China to develop a more sophisticated picture of US military practices,” the CSIS said.
It said certain radar systems installed in Cuba in recent years are in range to monitor rocket launches from Cape Canaveral and Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center, a likely interest for China as it seeks to catch up to US space launch technology.