U.S. Tracked ZTE, Huawei Workers at Suspected Chinese Spy Sites in Cuba - WSJ

WASHINGTON—During the Trump administration, U.S. officials reviewed intelligence that tracked workers from the Chinese telecom giants Huawei Technologies and ZTE entering and exiting facilities suspected of housing Chinese eavesdropping operations in Cuba, according to people familiar with the matter.

The intelligence contributed to suspicions within the Trump administration that the telecommunications companies might be playing a role in expanding China’s ability to spy on the U.S. from the island, according to people familiar with the matter. It couldn’t be learned whether the Biden administration has pursued that line of inquiry.

While neither Huawei nor ZTE is known to make the sophisticated tools governments would use for eavesdropping, both specialize in the technology needed to facilitate such an operation, such as servers and network equipment that could be used to transmit data to China, the people familiar with the matter said.