China is preparing to build an elaborate spy station on Cuba, only 100 miles from the United States coast, the Wall Street Journal reported on June 8. The new facility is expected to enable Chinese intelligence operatives to listen in on electronic communications throughout the southeastern United States.

The Wall Street Journal’s report is based on testimony from U.S. officials privy to highly classified American intelligence. The officials said China is paying the Cuban government several billion dollars for permission to build this espionage station near Florida, and once it is online it will enable Chinese intelligence operatives to conduct signals intelligence, or sigint. This means being able to snoop on phone calls, e-mails and satellite transmissions.

Meanwhile, a separate report said China has already been operating a different spy base in Cuba since at least 2019.

This brash geopolitical challenge from China comes just months after the Chinese floated a spy balloon over America. It comes as China keeps sending armies of its people into the U.S. to spy and steal secrets. It also comes as China’s legions of hackers continue to infiltrate American targets and even compromise critical infrastructure. Clearly there is a dogged and disturbing determination by the Chinese to spy on America and extract its secrets—especially in the military realm.

Cuba appears to have welcomed the deal in order to earn some badly needed cash. Starting in 1959, when the island nation became a Communist dictatorship, its government relied on the Soviet Union for generous subsidies. But that economic lifeline was cut with the Soviet Union’s dissolution, leaving Cuba mired in economic depression. In the 2000s, the nation began relying on Venezuela for aid, but that too was severed in recent years in the wake of Venezuela’s economic chaos. The Cuban government now appears to be looking to China as a new benefactor, so it is allowing the Chinese to establish an eavesdropping base on its territory.

Perhaps even more alarming than the spying is the physical presence this gives the Chinese on America’s doorstep. “Washington regards Beijing as its most significant economic and military rival,” the journal wrote. “A Chinese base with advanced military and intelligence capabilities in the U.S.’s backyard could be an unprecedented new threat.”

Meanwhile, China is also continuing to deepen ties with Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras and other countries in the region. A recent report by the Center for a Secure Free Society showed that after years of political maneuvering and strategic investments, Chinese companies now control dozens of Latin American ports and numerous satellite ground stations. “Many of these Chinese state-owned companies have ties to the People’s Liberation Army (pla) and are involved in around 40 port infrastructure projects, from Mexico down to Peru, that combined with 11 satellite ground stations in Latin America, provide China with strategic positioning in the Western Hemisphere,” the Center for a Secure Free Society wrote.

China’s power over Latin American and Caribbean nations is already profound, and its plan to build a spy base in Cuba shows determination to further deepen it.

This expanding Chinese presence on America’s doorstep should sound alarm bells in Washington. But the Biden administration instead seems largely dismissive of the threat.

This seemingly dismissive stance is particularly concerning given that Cuba and other nations where China is digging in lie astride key U.S. shipping routes. These are routes that America relies on for shipping and receiving critical commodities. In a March 2019 article titled “Preparing to Storm America’s Castle,” the Trumpet warned of the threat this poses:

[T]he Caribbean is vital to U.S. security. This sea not only connects the East Coast with the Pacific Ocean via the Panama Canal, it guards the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. Half of America’s seaborne trade passes through the Gulf. So a foreign power that controls the Caribbean could cripple the U.S. economy by restricting its access to oceanic shipping.

This geographic reality is why Russia and China want to challenge U.S. dominance in the Caribbean. These aspiring superpowers are forging alliances with socialist governments in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. If these Latin dictatorships become staging grounds for Russia and China, a coalition of nations could potentially cut off U.S. access to the Panama Canal and seal off the Straits of Florida and the Yucatán Channel.”

As disturbing as such a besiegement sounds, Bible prophecies in Deuteronomy, Ezekiel and Isaiah reveal it will soon happen. To understand, read “Preparing to Storm America’s Castle.”