This may be of interest:
China loves the buena vista
February 27 2003
Beijing: Cuba's veteran communist leader, Fidel Castro, received a warm welcome in Beijing yesterday on his way home from the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Malaysia.
It derived not from admiration for his ideological conviction or from a taste for retro Latin music as played by the Buena Vista Social Club.
The "buena vista" (good view) most appreciated by the Chinese is the vantage point Dr Castro provides for the Chinese military in spying on the United States.
According to the Australian National University specialist Desmond Ball, Chinese personnel have been operating two signals intelligence stations in Cuba since early 1999.
One is a large complex at Bejucal, south of Havana, equipped with 10 satellite communications antennas and mainly concerned with intercepting US telephone communications. A "cyber-warfare" unit is also based at Bejucal, monitoring data traffic between computers, said Professor Ball in a paper delivered last month on China's military role.
The second Chinese station is located in eastern Cuba, and is reported to be dedicated to intercepting satellite-based US military communications.
"China is actively and extensively engaged in the whole realm of signals intelligence, electronic warfare and cyber-warfare activities," Professor Ball said.
China uses computer viruses to disrupt military communications and public broadcasts,
but Chinese cyber-attacks are easily countered by the West's superior technology.
Hamish McDonald