Rushmore State News

During a visit to the Breaking Battlegrounds podcast hosted by Sam Stone, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., a member of the House Select Committee on China, discussed reports that China may be working to establish a base in Cuba. 

According to CNN, China’s move into Cuba would be done with the intent of spying on the United States, and the U.S. government became aware of the plans only in recent weeks. CNN said the site would give Beijing increased surveillance of the United States, including military installations scattered across the southeast. 

"It's alarming for two reasons,” he said. “Number one, I mean, they're going to have the capability to do all kinds of electronic surveillance across the southeastern United States from there. That's going to get access to stuff that they don't otherwise have. They can't get the same stuff from space. They could get it from balloons.”

Johnson said balloons can be shot down easily, but the base opens up new possibilities. 

“So this is going to give them new capabilities, particularly to scoop up information, communications from military sites in the southeastern United States,” he said during the podcast. “But the second reason it's concerning is that it shows additional provocation by Xi Jinping. They just keep pushing the envelope. They keep pushing us. They want us to know that they're going to be the bosses of the next 100 years.”

The Guardian said China is allegedly set to offer billions of dollars to the Cuban government to allow it to establish a surveillance site on the island just south of Florida. CNN said work has already begun, but the Guardian said it was not clear whether construction has started. In the podcast, Johnson said China may be motivated by what it sees as an antiquated Western system.

"I mean, we have a rules-based international system that was largely erected by the United States after World War Two and our allies, and China hates it," Johnson said during the podcast. "They just hate it. They don't think those rules of fair play make any sense. They want to knock down that system and build a new international system with their values at the core of it."

Johnson said the saber-rattling by China is likely part of a long-term plan. 

“And I would just say this by way of closure, they have a strategy,” he said during the podcast. “I'm not sure our country does. I think we just don't have a thoughtful and deliberate plan on how to make sure that the next century continues to be part of an American century.”

Spotlighting the unsettling notion of China becoming a global leader, Johnson said in the podcast that a world with people believing China is in charge would be more difficult for freedom and pointed out the United States’ track record for 247 years. 

“And the thing that I've loved about America through the last 247 years is that, to a greater degree than any other country in the history of the world, we have been on the side of the right guys, the good guys, and we've fought for the values,” he said during the podcast. “And, you know, we haven't been perfect, but we've gotten it right way more often than anybody else has. And that is not China's track record.”