Tipping Point Quick Hits (06.29.23)

China's Military in Cuba and the Declining Methodist Church

Could China’s Military Start Training in Cuba?

In an announcement that should chill any American, conversations emerged last week that indicate China and Cuba are talking about creating a new joint military training facility only 100 miles from the United States.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, right after U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken traveled to China for a series of meetings in Beijing. In the highest-level United States visit to China in several years, he says he told Xi Jinping the United States “would have deep concerns” about any increase in Chinese intelligence or military activities in Cuba:

“This is something we’re going to be monitoring very, very closely and we’ve been very clear about that. And we will protect our homeland, we will protect our interests,” he said.

The news comes from a recent U.S intelligence report that China and Cuba have not yet reached an agreement, but are discussing a deal to put the facility in place. It’s not clear how far along the two parties are in the conversations:

One of the sources said that, if completed, the facility would potentially host as many as several hundred Chinese People’s Liberation Army troops. The intelligence is being perceived by some who have seen it as China’s response to US military activities in Taiwan, which is around the same distance from mainland China as Cuba is from Florida.

China already has an intelligence station on Cuba that could potentially allow the Chinese to eavesdrop on electronic communications in the southeastern part of the United States.