State Department report alleges Beijing and Moscow regard Cuba-based facilities as among their ‘most critical foreign listening posts’

The United States has accused China of operating three intelligence-gathering facilities in Cuba and sharply expanding its personnel on the island, portraying Havana as a strategic platform for Beijing to monitor American military activity.

A State Department report released on Monday said China maintained a “persistent intelligence-gathering presence” in Cuba, whose location gives Beijing potential access to electronic communications, military installations and maritime activity in the southeastern United States.

The report, titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism”, said China “actively runs” three of 18 known signals-intelligence facilities on the island. It also said China and Russia had reportedly tripled their intelligence personnel at Cuban facilities since 2023.

Some Chinese and Russian facilities were assessed as jointly operated with Cuba, the report said, citing prior reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

Citing an unnamed senior US official, the report said Beijing and Moscow regarded their Cuba-based sites as among their “most critical foreign listening posts”.

The report did not identify the three facilities it said were operated by China, nor did it provide new intelligence to support its assessment.