Why Would China Bother With a Spy Base in Cuba?

[Spock]

https://apnews.com/article/china-cuba-s ... 35d628b18f

I am absolutely mystified as to why China would bother with a spy base in Cuba (and apparently other places) when, as SSS informed us during the balloon stuff, they already get everything they need from satellites.

[Beebs52]

It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma covered in a conundrum. With Gen TSO sauce

[BackInTex]

So the generals can put the cigars on their expense accounts.

[silverscreenselect]

https://apnews.com/article/china-cuba-s ... 35d628b18f

I am absolutely mystified as to why China would bother with a spy base in Cuba (and apparently other places) when, as SSS informed us during the balloon stuff, they already get everything they need from satellites.

Spock still has a problem understanding basic English. Here's my quote for at least the third time:

I never said we get "everything" we need from satellites. I quoted the NORAD general who said the Chinese spy balloon did not add any additional capabilities that their satellites did not already have.

A spy center 100 miles away gives an enemy additional capabilities to eavesdrop on confidential communications. You can't listen into these phone calls from a satellite a hundred miles in the sky or a balloon 50,000 feet in the air.

[BackInTex]

https://apnews.com/article/china-cuba-s ... 35d628b18f

I am absolutely mystified as to why China would bother with a spy base in Cuba (and apparently other places) when, as SSS informed us during the balloon stuff, they already get everything they need from satellites.

Spock still has a problem understanding basic English. Here's my quote for at least the third time:

I never said we get "everything" we need from satellites. I quoted the NORAD general who said the Chinese spy balloon did not add any additional capabilities that their satellites did not already have.

A spy center 100 miles away gives an enemy additional capabilities to eavesdrop on confidential communications. You can't listen into these phone calls from a satellite a hundred miles in the sky or a balloon 50,000 feet in the air.

What? You can't listen to confidential communications from 50,000 feet but you can from Cuba, which is 200 miles from Miami, not 100. And that is ONLY Miami. Communiations in DC are 1,100 miles away. You are saying, a ground based spy station, 1,100 miles away form Washington D.C., not even direct line of sight due to the Earth's curature can listen but a baloon on 50,000 feet or a satalite only 200 miles away with direct line of sight can't?

[silverscreenselect]

What? You can't listen to confidential communications from 50,000 feet but you can from Cuba, which is 200 miles from Miami, not 100. And that is ONLY Miami. Communiations in DC are 1,100 miles away.

The original report was in the Wall Street Journal. Since then, information has come out that China has been spying from Cuba since at least 2019. Here's what Reuters has to say about the story:

China has reached a secret deal with Cuba to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island roughly 100 miles (160 km) from Florida, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday, but the U.S. and Cuban governments cast strong doubt on the report. Such a spy installation would allow Beijing to gather electronic communications from the southeastern U.S., which houses many U.S. military bases, as well as monitor ship traffic, the newspaper reported, citing U.S. officials familiar with classified intelligence. The U.S. Central Command headquarters is based in Tampa. Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, the largest U.S. military base, is in North Carolina.

So you can get information from an earth station you can't get from satellites and balloons. Plus, earth stations operate 24/7, unlike satellites or balloons which are only over a particular location for brief periods of time.

[BackInTex]

What? You can't listen to confidential communications from 50,000 feet but you can from Cuba, which is 200 miles from Miami, not 100. And that is ONLY Miami. Communiations in DC are 1,100 miles away.

The original report was in the Wall Street Journal. Since then, information has come out that China has been spying from Cuba since at least 2019. Here's what Reuters has to say about the story:

China has reached a secret deal with Cuba to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island roughly 100 miles (160 km) from Florida, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday, but the U.S. and Cuban governments cast strong doubt on the report. Such a spy installation would allow Beijing to gather electronic communications from the southeastern U.S., which houses many U.S. military bases, as well as monitor ship traffic, the newspaper reported, citing U.S. officials familiar with classified intelligence. The U.S. Central Command headquarters is based in Tampa. Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, the largest U.S. military base, is in North Carolina.

So you can get information from an earth station you can't get from satellites and balloons. Plus, earth stations operate 24/7, unlike satellites or balloons which are only over a particular location for brief periods of time.

I'm not arguing the value of an earth station. Neither is Spock. We know it has value. We also know something that can move much closer than the fixed location earth station is also of value. That is the point of the rhetorical question. We know the answer.