{"id":8118,"date":"2023-06-16T12:12:34","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T12:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/?p=8118"},"modified":"2023-06-16T12:12:43","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T12:12:43","slug":"why-wouldnt-china-draw-cuba-into-the-new-cold-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/why-wouldnt-china-draw-cuba-into-the-new-cold-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Why wouldn\u2019t China draw Cuba into the new Cold War?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reports of Beijing\u2019s planned \u2018spy base\u2019 on Washington\u2019s doorstep are unsubstantiated but not unrealistic<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Last week an unnamed sources-based\u00a0story\u00a0in the Wall Street Journal claimed that China is set to pay Cuba to build a \u201csecret spy base\u201d in the country. The island, adjacent to the United States, has long been a huge geopolitical flashpoint following the Communist Revolution in the country in 1960, which brought it to the highest point of Cold War tensions \u2013 the Cuban Missile Crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although there is no tangible evidence as to whether this spy-base story is true, it is clear that as US-China tensions rise, the Caribbean country is yet again becoming a geopolitical football as a means of getting at the US. As a communist state situated right on America\u2019s doorstep, one which Washington is overwhelmingly hostile against and has long sought to subjugate, why wouldn\u2019t China take the opportunity to use Cuba to the US\u2019 annoyance? It would be foolish\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, there is some context to consider. First, the US is currently gripped by extreme paranoia regarding China. Almost all things pertaining to Beijing in recent months have been accused, almost always without evidence, of being a covert means for espionage of some sort. There are no rational limits to\u00a0what\u00a0may come under the crosshairs, and the bar for the definition of \u201cspying\u201d is so low it might as well not exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, the US has long baselessly accused China of constructing secret bases in third-party countries, often in a bid to undermine its relationship with those countries. This includes a so-called \u201cnaval base\u201d in Cambodia<\/a>, a base in the Solomon Islands, a base in Equatorial Guinea<\/a> in West Africa, a base in the United Arab Emirates<\/a> and so on. This would make it logical for allegations of a Chinese base in Cuba to be a perfect McCarthyist fantasy: one communist state the US is irrationally paranoid about using another communist state it is also obsessed with as a means to undermine Washington. It\u2019s a Marco Rubio wet dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean China doesn\u2019t have good reasons to do so. For all the paranoia, it is the US that is currently pursuing a full militarization of China\u2019s periphery. It is pushing countries for more military bases and defence agreements, it is flying reconnaissance flights against Beijing almost daily, it is sailing warships through the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. The US believes it has a divine right to spy on and confront China, and if the Chinese retaliate, well, they are the bad guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, if you were China, why wouldn\u2019t you take advantage of the existence of Cuba and give the US a taste of its own medicine? Cuba of course overtly welcomes the rise and role of China. Havana is subject to a 60-year-long economic blockade by the US that has tried to impoverish and crush the country, as well as remove its government. Following the end of the Cold War, the demise of the Soviet Union isolated and weakened Cuba. It is, given the events of the past few decades, nothing short of a miracle that the US did not decide to openly invade the country during its unipolar era, with several other \u201chostile\u201d regimes during that period meeting such a fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the rise of another long-term communist friend as an economic superpower is a massive benefactor for Cuba, because it finally gives it a new option as a source of trade, investment and, of course, a geopolitical guarantee of protection.\u00a0Cuba has become a critical partner in China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI),<\/a>\u00a0which has involved China modernizing the country\u2019s ports, building telecommunication infrastructure and collaborating on energy. Latin American states as a whole have strengthened their relationships with China precisely because it allows them to escape US hegemony, which has long unilaterally subjected the region to its preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Cuba especially gives China leverage over the US, given the provocative way Washington is interfering with Taiwan, so the idea of a \u201cspy base\u201d is realistic. Although Beijing\u2019s relationship with Havana will never become a military alliance, and likely never replicate the events of the last Cold War, it is an important strategic partner in responding to and containing the US. Cuba of course is not a threat to the US, but it is a nuisance and a menace ideologically, and what better way is there to respond to the US than by ensuring that its attempts to strangle, contain and stop Cuba from thriving never succeed? Beijing believes Havana should succeed through economic development and, spy base or not, that\u2019s what it will do here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Timur Fomenko<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reports of Beijing\u2019s planned \u2018spy base\u2019 on Washington\u2019s doorstep are unsubstantiated but not unrealistic Last week an unnamed sources-based\u00a0story\u00a0in the Wall Street Journal claimed that […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[53,8,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-cuba","category-opinions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5429,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/the-united-states-governs-only-with-sanctions\/","url_meta":{"origin":8118,"position":0},"title":"The United States governs only with sanctions","author":"Editorial Team","date":"November 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Since the last century, the rulers of the United States have used a policy of sanctions against countries that are not to their liking, leaving aside the norms established by the United Nations Organization and multiple conventions that govern multilateral relations. 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