China's ties to Cuba and growing presence in Latin America raise security concerns in Washington, even as leaders try to ease tensions

• There is a push by leaders in Washington and Beijing to get U.S.-China relations back on track.
• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President Xi Jinping in China in June 2023 to reopen the lines of communication between the countries.
• And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is spending four days in China, beginning July 6, 2023, to try to stabilize U.S.-China economic ties.
• But work to steady security issues between the two countries, a longtime point of contention, may have a longer horizon.
• Such moves reflect efforts by China to grow its influence in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Too close for comfort

• China’s planned spy base and military training facility in Cuba would be located near the U.S. naval station in Guantanamo Bay, home to several U.S. military facilities like U.S. Southern Command in Miami and U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command both in Tampa, along with their various component commands.
• The facility would allow Chinese intelligence officers to better intercept sensitive military information transmitted between U.S. military commands, track senior U.S. diplomatic and military leaders as they travel across the region, monitor U.S. naval and commercial ship movement and gain details about U.S. military exercises, conferences and training with various Latin American and Caribbean countries.
• The facility could also bolster China’s use of telecommunications networks to spy on U.S. citizens.
• U.S. officials have long suspected Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE of setting up servers and network equipment around the world, including in Cuba, to help the Chinese government collect sensitive information about local government leaders and private citizens.
• Chinese companies have also either built or operate 12 space research facilities in South America that can be used for legitimate space research.
• But U.S. and other officials have voiced concern that these same sites could be used to spy on U.S. satellites and intercept sensitive information.

Illegal Chinese police

• Chinese police forces are a growing presence as well.
• In April 2023, the FBI arrested two Chinese citizens for allegedly operating an illegal police station in New York City’s Chinatown.
• According to The New York Times, the men allegedly harassed Chinese dissidents living in the U.S. China allegedly operates 100 of these police outposts around the world.
• In fact, the U.S. has banned some of these companies out of concern they spy for the Chinese government.

Decades of growing influence

• Meanwhile, a major source of conflict between the U.S. and China is the supply of the drug fentanyl.
• In April 2023, the Biden administration declared fentanyl an emerging threat to U.S. national security.
• The fentanyl global supply chain often ends on U.S. streets, but it begins in various pharmaceutical company labs in China.
• The China-Cuba connection is just one example of how the Chinese government and Chinese companies have been expanding their influence on America’s doorstep for decades.