CHINA'S CUBAN ECHELON

China has been known to criticize the US for 'interfering' in Asian affairs, but you rarely hear much about China's actions in the Western Hemisphere.

There are still strong ties, for instance, between the nominally communist Chinese leadership and the scruffy Marxist true-believer Castro. Citing a report be released tomorrow by the Institute of Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami, the Asian Wall Street Journal (no link) reports:

"In February 1999, [China's defense minister] Chi [Haotian] visited Havana to finalize an agreement with Cuban counterpart Raul Castro to operate joint Sino-Cuban signals intelligence and electronic warfare facilities on the island equipped (at China's expense) with the latest telecommunications hardware and fully integrated into Beijing's global satellite network. By March 1999, PLA {People's Liberation Army] officers and technicians began monitoring U.S. telephone conversations and Internet data from a new cyber-warfare complex in the vicinity of Bejucal, 20 miles south of Havana."

It continues:

"A second installation, capable of eavesdropping on on classified U.S. military communications and by intercepting satellite signals was also being constructed on the eastern end of the island, near the city of Santiago de Cuba."

This is probably the most egregious and threatening move by China in the region, although the AWSJ notes that China has been making overtures to other Latin American and Caribbean states.

The warmest relationship, aside from Castro, is with Chavez in Venezuela. That can be attributed to China's surging need for crude as much as it can shared ideology. China is engaged with several disreputable African nations for the same reason - as, to be fair, are most major Western oil companies.

Most of China's interest in the region is in relation to its 'domestic' policies. In particular, it has been trying to buy the support of the six LatAm nations that still recognize Taiwan. On this, the AWSJ again notes China's interest in 'developing' the canal in Taipei-friendly Panama (though much of this 'Chinese' interest is from Hong Kong shipping magnate Li Ka-shing and really, really, shouldn't be overblown.)

The joint-venture China-Cuban surveillance project is the most worrying development, though it would unlikely be a match for the technically non-existent Echelon program.

China, naturally, is seeking info to prepare itself for a possible war in the Taiwan straits - a conflict that, I believe, remains unlikely.

Cuba may have even more to gain. No matter how much intelligence it gathers, it would not be able to withstand a U.S. invasion, but there are other benefits. The cash-strapped island has been known to cooperate with other unsavory regimes. Based on his past performance, Castro would have few qualms about passing on or selling information to Iran, Syria, North Korea or other potential hostile states.

Militarily the U.S. has left Cuba alone for two reasons: because of deals stemming from the 1963 missile-crisis and because it was not really any military threat.

With the fall of the Soviet Union, the deals struck during the Cuban Missile Crisis no longer apply. If the surveillance project proves successful, neither will the second point. Then, hawks - myself included - may start arguing that something more forceful than sanctions should be used on Castro's little socialist paradise.