China’s Ears, 90 Miles Away

Military personnel monitoring multiple screens in a command center

Just 90 miles off America’s shore, a powerful new antenna farm in Cuba is likely helping communist China listen in on our military, our borders, and our everyday lives.

Story Snapshot

A massive new circular antenna array at Cuba’s Bejucal base is now complete and likely operational.
Analysts say the site can track and intercept U.S. radio and military signals across the Southeast.
Evidence strongly suggests Chinese involvement, though Beijing and Havana deny it.
The base sits on America’s doorstep while past weak policies left this threat to grow.

A New Listening Post on America’s Doorstep

Recent satellite imagery shows that Cuba’s large signals-intelligence base at Bejucal, just south of Havana, has finished a major upgrade that should alarm every American watching China’s rise.^[3] Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies report that an older antenna field has been completely rebuilt into a huge circularly disposed antenna array, a Cold War style “listening ring” designed to intercept and locate radio signals over long distances.^[3] From that spot in northwest Cuba, this array can reach deep into the southeastern United States.^[2]

The new system at Bejucal is no minor tweak. Over the last two years, workers ripped out a linear antenna grid and laid cables to a hardened central control building.^[3] The finished array now holds thirty-two antennas, with nineteen in an outer ring and thirteen in an inner ring, making it larger and more capable than any similar Cuban system seen before.^[3] These arrays are built for high-frequency direction finding, which means they can pick up, sort, and geolocate radio traffic from military bases, ships, aircraft, and even some civilian systems across the Caribbean and Gulf region.^[2]^[3]

Why This Matters for U.S. Security and Everyday Americans

From Bejucal’s position, this listening post sits within range of key U.S. assets: Florida air and naval bases, space launches from Cape Canaveral, and busy sea lanes in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic.^[2]^[16] Analysts warn that such sites may not need to break strong encryption to be dangerous.^[17] By tracking patterns and electronic “signatures,” foreign powers can map how our forces move, when they deploy, and what types of systems we use. That knowledge is gold in a crisis, especially in a world edging toward a new Cold War with Beijing.^[16]^[17]

For families along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic seaboard, this is not an abstract problem. A foreign power that can quietly monitor U.S. military and border activity gains leverage over our ability to defend our homeland and enforce our immigration laws. According to open-source research, several Cuban sites, including Bejucal, El Salao, Wajay, and Calabazar, now host upgraded gear capable of collecting sensitive electronic communications from U.S. bases and shipping across the region.^[8]^[16] That raises serious questions about past complacency in Washington that let these sites grow while leaders focused on climate treaties and woke agendas instead of perimeter defense.

Is China Running the Show, or Just “Helping” Cuba?

On the key question—who is really in control—open sources draw a careful line. The CSIS analysis describes Bejucal as Cuba’s largest active signals-intelligence base, with clear military security and underground facilities that have expanded since 2010.^[16] The think tank says the site has long been associated with Chinese intelligence in public reporting and U.S. testimony, and assesses Bejucal as one of four facilities most likely supporting China’s intelligence efforts against the United States.^[3]^[16] However, CSIS also admits there is no clear public “smoking gun” proving direct Chinese operation.^[3]^[2]

That uncertainty has fueled a sharp debate. A critical study released through the National Security Archive argues that CSIS provided no firm evidence that China operates spy bases in Cuba and that the same antennas could serve Cuban military, space tracking, or even anti-drug missions.^[6] Journalists on the ground in Cuba reported that locals see the facilities as long-standing Cuban military sites, not foreign bases, and some Cuban and foreign experts openly call the “China spy base” story fake.^[6]^[14] Beijing and Havana both deny any Chinese-run installations, while U.S. intelligence officials, speaking mostly behind closed doors, maintain that Chinese access and control are real.^[11]^[12]^[18]

What a Conservative, America-First Response Should Look Like

For constitutional conservatives, two facts can be held at once: first, we must not exaggerate intelligence claims based only on anonymous sources; second, we cannot ignore a hostile communist power likely gaining a powerful ear just off our coast. Satellite imagery, open-source studies, and congressional testimony together show that at least four Cuban sites now field advanced antennas and arrays optimized for long-range signals collection and satellite monitoring.^[1]^[3]^[7]^[16] Whether China owns every bolt or “only” has access, these facilities clearly enhance the ability of foreign adversaries to track U.S. activity close to home.^[2]^[8]^[16]

China's spy base at Bejucal in Cuba went operational this week, confirmed by new satellite imagery, while Washington's fuel blockade pushes the island toward collapse and a fresh migration wave. A breakdown:

1) CSIS published satellite imagery on June 18 confirming Bejucal,…

— Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (@academic_la) June 19, 2026

That means the Trump administration in its second term faces a hard but necessary job. Washington must harden U.S. communications, relocate the most sensitive systems out of predictable patterns, and boost counter-intelligence—without sliding into reckless talk of war or giving cover to bigger government spying on Americans. At the same time, policymakers should revisit past decisions that weakened U.S. leverage in the hemisphere, from easing pressure on Havana to relying on globalist trade with Beijing. A serious, America-first strategy treats Cuba’s listening posts as a wake-up call to secure our own house, defend our borders, and refocus the federal government on its core duty: protecting the American people, not policing their speech or pushing radical social experiments.