Global Courant
A Chinese spy base in Cuba that could intercept electronic signals from nearby U.S. military and commercial buildings has been in operation since or before 2019, when the Chinese base was upgraded, according to a Biden administration official.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said the spy base was a problem the Biden administration inherited from former President Donald J. Trump. After Mr Biden took office, his administration was briefed on the base in Cuba and plans China was considering to build similar facilities around the world, the official said.
The Biden administration has been working to counter China’s attempts to gain a foothold in the region and elsewhere, the official said, primarily by establishing diplomatic contacts with countries that China has been targeting as potential hosts for such bases. The official added that the government had delayed China’s plans but declined to give details.
The existence of an agreement to build a Chinese spy facility in Cuba, first reported by The Wall Street Journal and also reported by The New York Times and other news outlets, prompted a strong response from Capitol Hill. In a joint statement on Thursday, Virginia Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the panel’s top Republican, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, said they were “deeply disturbed by reports that Havana and Beijing are collaborating to focus on the United States and our people.”
It is not clear whether Beijing and Havana have any plans to further improve China’s intelligence-gathering capabilities on the island.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby denied the reports earlier this week, saying they were “not accurate.” He added that “we are really 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 1 of government.”
Some critics of the Biden administration questioned the motives for the administration’s response.
“Why did the Biden administration previously deny these reports about a CCP spy base in Cuba? Why did they play down the CCP’s ‘silly’ spy balloon?” Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee that deals with strategic competition with China, said in a statement Saturday, referring to the Chinese Communist Party by its initials.
While Beijing’s global efforts to build military bases and listening posts have been documented before, the reports detail the extent to which China is moving its intelligence-gathering operations ever closer to the United States. Cuba’s coastline is less than 100 miles from the nearest part of Florida, close enough to enhance China’s technological capability to conduct intelligence by monitoring electronic communications in the southeastern US, which is home to several military bases.
The reports also surfaced at an awkward time for the Biden administration, which has sought to normalize relations with China after a protracted period of heightened tensions. Last year, several diplomatic, military and climate agreements between the two countries were frozen after President Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan over objections from Beijing, which considers the self-governing island part of its territory.
High-level meetings, including an official trip by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, were canceled again earlier this year, after a Chinese spy balloon was tracked across the United States by people on the ground near sensitive military sites.
Blinken is expected to make that official visit to Beijing soon, and it’s unclear whether revelations about a Chinese spy facility so close to US territory could complicate those plans. Other issues hover over the journey including growing calls for China to release Yuyu Dong, a prominent journalist who has been detained since February last year and awaits trial on charges of espionage that his relatives believe are false. Mr. Dong, a former Nieman fellow at Harvard, has spent years transparently consulting with US and Japanese diplomats and journalists in Beijing.
Edward Wong contributed reporting.
