90 Miles From Tyranny

Friday, June 30, 2023

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #2127

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

Girls With Guns

FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping and Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez walk during a welcome ceremony in Beijing, Nov. 25, 2022. They pledged mutual support over their fellow communist states' "core interests."

WASHINGTON — Top U.S. lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to brief Congress on the spy station China is allegedly building in Cuba, but American analysts fear that China’s plans for America’s backyard may go beyond intelligence gathering.

If a war over Taiwan were to break out, these analysts warn, the Chinese military could operate in Latin America and the Caribbean to disrupt U.S. military operations or even strike the continental U.S.

In a June 22 letter to CIA chief William Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, requested that detailed information on China’s activities in Cuba be provided by July 14.

The lawmakers’ concern originated with a June 19 Wall Street Journal report quoting current and former U.S. officials as saying that China is negotiating with the Cuban government to establish a joint military training facility in the island nation just 166 kilometers from Florida. The enterprise could lead to the stationing of Chinese troops at the facility and expansion of Chinese intelligence-gathering against the U.S.

"It is imperative that we understand in full detail: the exact nature and objectives of the PRC’s intelligence gathering in Cuba and military partnership with the regime; the implications of such efforts for U.S. national interests; and what the Biden administration is doing to mitigate such efforts and deter their further expansion with Cuba and the Western Hemisphere,” the letter says.

"The American public needs to be assured that their government unequivocally condemns this escalation, and is working to do everything in its power to counter it,” the lawmakers wrote.

Some US success

Blinken told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on June 25 that Washington had made its concerns clear to Beijing and Havana and had had some success in preventing China from building military bases overseas.

Republican Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of a select committee on U.S.-China strategic competition, told VOA Mandarin in a June 26 email, “If true, this [WSJ] report illustrates yet again why it is foolish for the Biden administration to shelve defensive actions and disclosures simply to secure a diplomatic audience with General Secretary Xi [Jinping]. The [Chinese Communist Party] is the only party seeking to upend the peaceful status quo, and prioritizing endless dialogue over competitive policies invites aggression.”

VOA Mandarin emailed the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment on the latest developments but has not received a response. The spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on June 20 that he was unaware of this situation.

However, a June 26 op-ed in China’s official Global Times referred to U.S. alarm as “the disinformation campaign hyping up the so-called Chinese spy base in Cuba.”

If established, a Chinese facility in Cuba could have military and strategic consequences for U.S. homeland security, warned Gordon Chang, a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute think tank.

In a June 23 article, Chang wrote that adding nuclear missile silos in Cuba would give China’s People's Liberation Army the advantage of “shorter flight times" — meaning less warning time.

“Moreover, U.S. missile defenses — and radars — are currently oriented to attacks from over the Arctic, from the north. Cuba gives China venues for...