A secret Chinese spy base? Cuban officials say no to media report
US and Cuban officials rejected a Wall Street Journal report about a surveillance base to be built in the Caribbean.
A report in the Wall Street Journal that Beijing was planning to set up a spy base in Cuba has been brushed aside by multiple government sources in the Caribbean and the United States.
The denials began with an “exclusive” in the New York-based newspaper detailing “a secret agreement for China to establish an electronic wiretapping facility on the island.”
The article cites unnamed U.S. officials familiar with “highly classified intelligence,” saying the proposed base would allow China to conduct “signal intelligence,” a type of espionage that would allow it to track emails, phone calls and other could intercept data from the US.
The Journal said an agreement in principle had been reached with Beijing agreeing to pay Cuba “several billions of dollars” to set up the facility.
“We’ve seen the report. It’s wrong,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Reuters news agency without elaborating on which aspect of the report was incorrect.
Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for the US Defense Department, said: “We are not aware that China and Cuba are developing a new type of spy station.”
In Havana, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio dismissed the Journal article as “totally mendacious and baseless”, calling it a U.S. fabrication designed to overturn Washington’s decades-old economic embargo against the island. justify.
He said the island rejected any foreign military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington said: “We are not aware of the matter and therefore cannot comment at this time.”
With Cuba about 150 kilometers (93 mi) from the Florida coast, the report sent ripples through the American political atmosphere, especially on the right.
“This month alone, China harassed and threatened a US fighter jet and naval vessel. Now it’s setting up a spy base in Cuba,” Republican presidential nominee Nikki Haley said posted on Twitter.
Ohio Representative Jim Jordan echoed her outrage, blaming US President Joe Biden and earlier this year linked the news to the plane that US intelligence identified as a Chinese spy balloon crossing its skies.
“At first it was a Chinese spy balloon. Now it is a Chinese spy base. Not happened under President Trump. But is happening now under President Biden,” he wrote.
The Journal reported that the facility would allow Beijing to collect electronic communications from the southeastern US, where many US military bases are located, and monitor shipping traffic.
The headquarters of the US Central Command is located in Tampa. Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, the largest US military base, is located in North Carolina.
The reported deal comes as Washington and Beijing appear to be taking tentative steps to ease tensions that have risen over issues from Taiwan to the South China Sea, human rights and the suspected spy balloon.
February’s balloon furore prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a planned visit to Beijing and there were suggestions it could now take place in the coming weeks.
“We are deeply concerned about China’s relationship with Cuba, and we have been concerned about China’s activities in our hemisphere and around the world since day one of administration,” said Kirby of the White House.