Global Courant
Havana denounces “defamatory speculation” as White House official says Beijing upgraded its intelligence-gathering facilities in Cuba in 2019.
China has had an intelligence unit in Cuba for years and upgraded it in 2019 as part of a global effort by Beijing to boost its intelligence-gathering capabilities, a senior US White House official said.
The statement on Saturday came days after The Wall Street Journal reported that China had reached a secret deal with Cuba to set up an electronic wiretapping facility on the island, about 160 km (100 miles) from the state of Florida in the south of the US. United States.
The WSJ reported that China planned to pay billions of dollars to a cash-strapped Cuba as part of the negotiations.
The US and Cuban governments have expressed serious doubts about the report.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the White House official said the characterization of the WSJ “does not agree with our understanding” but did not specify how the report was wrong, nor elaborate on whether any attempts were made to from China to build a new eavesdropping facility in Cuba.
The official said the issue predated the administration of US President Joe Biden, as well as Beijing’s efforts to bolster its intelligence-gathering infrastructure globally.
“This is an ongoing problem and not a new development,” the official said. “The PRC (People’s Republic of China) upgraded its intelligence-gathering facilities in Cuba in 2019. This is well documented in the intelligence file.”
When asked for comment, an official at the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. pointed to Friday’s statement by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman accusing the U.S. of “spreading rumors and slander” by talking about a Cuban spy station and ” to be the most powerful hacker empire”. in the world”.
The Cuban government, meanwhile, denounced the latest development.
“The defamatory speculation continues, clearly promoted by certain media outlets to cause damage and alarm, without following minimal communication patterns and without providing any data or evidence to support what they are spreading,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio. on Twitter.
Cassio has previously described the WSJ’s report as a US fabrication designed to justify Washington’s decades-old economic embargo against the island.
He said Cuba rejects any foreign military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The attention to alleged Chinese espionage from Cuba comes as Washington and Beijing take tentative steps to calm tensions mounting after a suspected high-altitude Chinese spy balloon crossed the US mainland before the country’s military shot it down off the east coast in February.
That includes a trip to China that U.S. officials say Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning for June 18. Washington’s top diplomat had previously canceled the visit because of the spy balloon incident.
The Biden administration official said that despite the fact that former US President Donald Trump’s administration was aware of the efforts of the Chinese in Cuba and made some efforts to meet the challenge, “we are not making enough progress booked and needed a more direct approach”.
The official said US diplomats had engaged governments considering hosting Chinese bases and exchanged information with them.
“Our experts believe that our diplomatic efforts have slowed the PRC,” the official said.
“We think the People’s Republic of China is not quite where they hoped.”
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