China Building Presence in Cuba, Throughout Caribbean

China's interest in reopening the Soviet-era Lourdes spy facility in Cuba should come as little surprise to those who've watched Beijing fan out across the Caribbean in recent years, establishing a presence – and likely spy operations – in Puerto Rico, Haiti, Panama, and the Dominican Republic, among other locales with proximity to the U.S. and its interests.

The Soviet Union's Cuban signals collection outpost, located to the southwest of Havana in an area known as Lourdes, operated even after the fall of the U.S.S.R., until approximately 2001. During the spy station's glory years, it likely attempted to monitor the airwaves in Southern Florida, encompassing not only radio and television, but also microwave communication of telephone traffic, any ground satellite stations communicating with space, and signals emanating from Kennedy Space Center and the adjacent Air Force-operated space launch facility.