Systemic Wagging the Dog
The alleged China spy base in Cuba
Since the late 1940s, the United States of America has had a structurally induced tendency to fabricate threats and enemies. At that fateful time, the Cold War ideology was constructed as a justification for the militarization of the economy and society and for a permanent war economy, which made the nation overly dependent on its arms industry. It was a quick fix, but in the long run unwise, to the problem of the difficulties in reconverting the national economy to a peacetime economy following World War II. The wiser road would have involved world leadership in creative strategies of investment in industries central to peacetime economies in a politically stable post-colonial world-system. The erroneous turn in policy was constructed on a false premise, in that the Soviet Union was not oriented to global domination but to a peaceful coexistence with the West that included the security of its western borders, which had been overrun for the third time in 150 years by the Nazi aggression. It was an unwise approach to foreign policy that was so ideologically powerful that it could empower the fabrication of other enemies of national security long after the Soviet Union disappeared from the scene. Indeed, it was so destructive of the national economy that it made other approaches to national security difficult to imagine.
During the last decade, the systemic wag the dog phenomenon has been expressing itself in the fabrication of threats related to a New Cold War, in which the People’s Republic of China is the central villain. As with the first Cold War, the threat is constructed on false claims, in that the dynamic and expanding Chinese economy is not a threat to the United States or any other county. China is an underdeveloped country with a large economy that has had impressive gains in economic development during the last three decades, not through the domination or exploitation of other lands—as previously occurred in the development of the Western economies—but through intelligent development strategies tied to win-win cooperation with other nations. Far from threatening the world, China illustrates an alternative approach to international relations that could be the foundation for an era of world peace and stability.
Inasmuch as the U.S. corporate elite and political establishment has dedicated itself during the past seventy-five years to undermining the strength of the American economy, the U.S. economy is today less prepared than it otherwise could have been to successfully participate in a post-imperialist world-economy in accordance with the conceptualizations of Chinese foreign policy. However, a readjustment and renewal of the American economy is feasible and attainable. The U.S. economy remains one of the strongest of the world’s economies, especially in some sectors. The fundamental obstacle is ideological: the American political establishment is incapable of understanding the structural sources of the economic problems of the nation and leading the people toward an alternative road of cooperative construction.
The persistent wrongheadedness of U.S. foreign policy was succinctly expressed recently by Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the Ministry’s regular press conference on June 16, 2023, Wang declared:
“President Xi Jinping has pointed out on multiple occasions that China-US relations should not be a zero-sum game where one side out-competes or thrives at the expense of the other. The two sides should form a correct perception of each other’s domestic and foreign policies and strategic intentions, respect each other, coexist in peace, pursue win-win cooperation, and explore the right way to get along with each other. This not only serves the interests of the two peoples but also meets the common aspiration of the international community.
“The US views China as its ‘primary rival’ and ‘the most consequential geopolitical challenge’. This is a major strategic misjudgement. There is competition between the two countries in areas such as economy and trade, but there should be no vicious zero-sum competition. Still less should there be practices to contain or suppress one another in the name of competition and deprive China of its legitimate right to development. This is not ‘responsible competition’, but irresponsible bullying. It will only push the two countries towards confrontation and create a divided world.
“Let me stress again that the US needs to give up the illusion of dealing with China ‘from a position of strength’. China and the US must develop relations on the basis of mutual respect and equality, respect their difference in history, culture, social system and development path and accommodate each other’s core interests and major concerns.”
The alleged Chinese spy station in Cuba
The ideological limitations of U.S. public discourse provide a context for recent revelations that were a prominent news story for five days. On June 8, the Wall Street Journal published an article stating that China and Cuba have reached an agreement to build an electronic eavesdropping station in Cuba. The article claimed that China planned to pay Cuba several billion dollars.
The Cuban response was immediate and unequivocal. Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossio, issued a statement on June 8: “The US Newspaper The Wall Street Journal published on June 8 a totally untrue and unfounded information, according to which there allegedly exists an agreement between Cuba and China in the military area for the establishment of a supposed espionage facility.”
Fernández de Cossio notes that such an agreement would be at variance with Cuban foreign policy. Cuba played a leadership role in the CELAC 2014 Declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, the essence of which is rejection of all foreign military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Fernández de Cossio maintains that such slanderous fabrications by U.S. officials are frequent. They include false claims of acoustic Cuban attacks against U.S. diplomatic personnel, Cuban military troops in Venezuela, and biological weapons laboratories in Cuba. Such slanderous claims are fabricated to justify the reinforcement of the U.S. economic blockade Cuba, with the intention of destabilizing the Cuban political system.
The Cuban denial was reiterated in a July 12 Declaration of the Minister of Foreign Relations, Bruno Rodríguez.
“The affirmations of the Secretary of State of the United States concerning the presence of a Chinese spy base in Cuba are false. The position of Cuba on this matter is clear and categorical. These declarations lack substance. Their purpose is to serve as a pretext for maintaining the economic blockade against Cuba and the measures of maximum pressure that have been reinforced in recent years. . . . We are confronting a new operation of disinformation, similar to many others that have been generated in the United States in its long history of hostility against our country.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin was dismissive of claims concerning the existence an agreement to set up a Chinese spy facility in Cuba. He noted on July 9 that the United States has a long history of meddling in the internal affairs of nations. He also suggested that the accusation is hypocritical, in that the USA is “the global champion of hacking and the superpower of surveillance.” Wang declared on July 12 that the USA will not succeed in driving a wedge between China and Cuba, nor can the United States succeed in covering up “its deplorable track record of indiscriminate mass spying around the world."
The Biden Administration initially denied the reports of a Chinese spy station in Cuba. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated in an MSNBC interview on June 8 that the report on an agreement between China and Cuba is not accurate, without specifying what was incorrect. Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder also stated on June 8 that the report was inaccurate, declaring that “we are not aware of China and Cuba developing any type of spy station.”
But on June 11, the White House confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that China has operated a spy base in Cuba since 2019. And the Associate Press reported on June 11 that a Biden administration office confirmed that China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since 2019. The official explained that China has been expanding its intelligence gathering operations around the world; and that the Biden administration has been aware of this and has had some success through diplomacy to curtail such activities.
Although there are contradictions in the unfolding story, it appears that the Biden administration has settled on the line that China has been operating spying stations in Cuba since 2019, although there is uncertainty about a new agreement, which if it exists, has not proceeded to implementation. Meanwhile, China is dismissive of the story, and Cuba strongly denies it.
The political usefulness of the China-spy-base-in-Cuba story
The China-spy-base-in-Cuba story is useful for the U.S. unconventional war against Cuba, for it reinforces a view of Cuba as a failed and dependent state. As Manolo De Los Santos and Kate Gonzales point out in Peoples Dispatch on June 9, such false stories about Cuba function to prevent normal relations with Cuba.
Accordingly, anti-Cuban counterrevolutionaries pounced on the news, criticizing the administration for failing to check Chinese influence in Latin America. Sen. Bob Menendez, chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee condemned the alleged spying facility as “a direct assault upon the United States.” Florida Congresspersons Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Mario Diaz-Balart sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in which they maintained that “this escalation [is] the latest step in a long series of Chinese interventions in the Western Hemisphere,” making reference to an “increasingly symbiotic relationship between Cuba and China.” Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said on Twitter that "the threat to America from Cuba isn't just real, it is far worse than this."
In addition, the China-spy-base-in-Cuba story is useful to the USA in its Cold War with China, fueling notions of the global threat of Chinese expansionism. A June 12 Washington Post article by Olivier Knox describes China as “America’s most serious global rival” and stresses that the revelation of a potential or existing spy facility in Cuba is consistent with China’s plans in its global rivalry with the United States, in that the base is only one of dozens that China has established throughout the world.
Opponents of the Biden administration used the story as a basis for criticism of the administration for being too soft on a Cold War opponent. Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley wrote on Twitter that “Joe Biden needs to wake up to the real Chinese threats on our doorstep.” Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, criticized the Biden Administration for contradicting themselves about whether or not China is spying on the USA, ignoring the threat from China. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis), chair of the House China Committee, criticized the Biden administration for initially denying the reports of a Chinese spy base in Cuba. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), a member of the same committee, declared that the Congress ought to investigate the matter, and ought not accept at face value the denials of the Defense Department.
Such criticisms of the Biden administration are good examples of the superficiality of U.S. public discourse. As indicated above, increasing Chinese influence in Latin America is a consequence of long-term tendencies in U.S. economic and foreign policies that have been supported by both political parties for decades. But critical reflection in this direction is nowhere to be found.
Moreover, given the universality of the practice of surveillance among nations, Chinese surveillance via Cuba could not reasonably be characterized as a “direct assault on the United States.” On the contrary, any agreement between China and Cuba with respect to surveillance, if it were to exist, ought to be interpreted as a normal process of two nations exercising their sovereign rights. The U.S. government could ask China and/or Cuba to cease and desist, but there is no reason for them to honor the request, given the extensive spying on other nations by the USA.
Knox observes that the China threat functions to politically unify the USA. “The idea that China is America’s most serious global competitor is entirely mainstream. Bipartisan concerns, from the White House through Congress, make this arguably the most serious policy issue on which so many members of both parties agree.” Indeed, such unification in the face of a fabricated external threat is the essence of wag the dog functioning, which has the negative consequence of undermining the national economy in the long run.
On the other hand, the China-spy-base-in-Cuba story could turn out to be the height of dysfunctionality, in that it could contribute to a war between the USA and China, including the possibility for nuclear war. The June 19 meeting between President Xi Jinping and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken perhaps indicates that the military-industrial complex does not want war with China, and that the USA desires to manage the Cold War with China and prevent it from getting out of hand.
On the sovereignty of nations and the reality of international spying
The public debate on the China-spy-base-in-Cuba story illustrates the widespread implicit assumption in the USA that Cuba does not have the right to be a sovereign nation. This issue was referenced in the June 8 statement by Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Fernández de Cossio, which prefaced its unequivocal denial with the phrase, "Cuba’s sovereign rights in the area of Defense notwithstanding,” implying that Cuba does indeed have the right as a sovereign nation to make an agreement with China on a spy station in its territory.
Reflecting the widespread blindness to the issue of sovereignty, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued a statement declaring that “the United States must respond to China’s ongoing and brazen attacks on our nation’s security. We must be clear that it would be unacceptable for China to establish an intelligence facility within 100 miles of Florida and the United States.”
In contrast to such national security hysteria, Michael A. Allen, a political science professor at Boise State University, notes that spying is normal in international relations. A CBS News June 9 report notes that China and the USA routinely spy on each other using satellites, overhead flights, and other means. Indeed, the USA has a long history of spying on China in its own neighborhood. It is widely reported that the USA uses Taiwan as a listening post; and the USA conducts spying missions near China, using reconnaissance aircraft that routinely engage in electronic eavesdropping. In accordance with this reality, James Andrew Lewis, director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, states that there is very little the USA can do to prevent Cuba from having a Chinese listening station.
It is unclear how important a base in Cuba would be for Chinese spying. Some former U.S. intelligence officials declared that such a facility would expand Beijing’s spying capabilities. It would enable China to use Cuba as a beachhead for collection against the United States, enabling China to eavesdrop on electronic communication across the southeastern USA. But on the other hand, other former U.S. intelligence officials say that China has already established footholds inside the USA in secret police stations that the Biden administration has begun to clamp down on. Fulton Armstrong, a former senior CIA analyst on Cuba, downplayed the importance of Cuba for Chinese spying. “A listening post would be of marginal value (to China) in today’s technology,” although it would have symbolic value, compensating for Beijing’s unhappiness over U.S. spying in its own neighborhood, including the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
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