Marco Rubio warns China may try to establish a military force in Cuba

The prospect of China establishing a spy facility in Cuba has generated angst and alarm within Florida’s congressional delegation for weeks. But U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, says the foreign power has grown its presence in Havana for years.

He’s worried about what might happen when military forces also arrive on the island nation. The Miami Republican spoke to Fox News host Trey Gowdy about hostile powers conducting spying operations 90 miles off Florida’s coast.

“China and Russia have had an intelligence presence in Cuba for a while. I think there’s concern now, as it’s been reported in the media, that they’re expanding their ability to collect electronically on us,” Rubio said.

The Wall Street Journal last month first reported China had reached an agreement with Cuba to set up an electronic intelligence gathering station in Havana. The newspaper reported the eastern superpower would provide billions of dollars in foreign aid to Cuba in return.

China has refuted the reporting.

Officials within President Joe Biden’s administration later told NBC News that China appears to have had an eavesdropping station in Cuba for years and upgraded its technology most recently in 2019. That seems to confirm Rubio’s assertion that spying from the island nation is nothing new.

Florida’s senior Senator noted there’s more than just proximity to American soil that makes it attractive to eavesdrop from Cuba.

“Central Command is in Tampa. Special Operations Command is in Tampa. Southern Command is in Miami,” Rubio said. “NASA, multiple military installations are up to the southeast. So it’s a huge intelligence threat.”

But more than espionage, Rubio worries hostile powers have grander plans for a foothold in the communist nation.

“The thing I keep an eye on very closely beyond that is, is there now going to be a Chinese military presence, a base of some sort, which is something the Chinese intend to do somewhere in the Western hemisphere?” Rubio said.

“It would be the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in which you have a large, permanent contingent of a foreign adversary, a military presence, not just in our hemisphere, but 90 miles off the coast of Key West.”

He said President Joe Biden’s administration must make clear the U.S. won’t tolerate that type of expansion.

“This administration should be focused on and making very clear that we will not tolerate or not allow, making it very clear to the Cuban regime that if they cross that line, we will have to take measures against them,” Rubio said. “We really shouldn’t limit what those measures would be in that scenario.”