China on Friday accused the United States of “spreading rumors and slander” after The Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing plans to set up a spy center in Cuba to intercept US communications.
The newspaper, which quotes “US officials with access to classified information,” said that the spy center is part of an agreement between Havana and Beijing that would have Cuba pay one billion dollars in exchange.
“We all know that spreading rumors and slander is a common tactic of the United States,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin reacted at a press conference, adding that Washington “has long been illegally occupying the base of Guantanamo”. In Cuba”.
Wang accused Washington of “participating in opaque activities” in the Caribbean country and of “imposing an embargo” on the island “for more than 60 years.”
The spokesman recommended that the US authorities “reflect” and “stop interfering in Cuban internal affairs under the pretext of democracy and human rights” and “immediately cancel the embargo imposed on Cuba.”
The newspaper indicated that an espionage base in Cuba, less than 150 kilometers from Florida, would be useful to learn the details of maritime traffic, in a region with a large number of military bases, as well as to monitor all electronic communications in the southeast. . region of the United States.
The news comes after international organizations announced that the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, will visit China in the coming days.
The information was not confirmed by Beijing or Washington.
Blinken already canceled a possible trip to the Asian country last February, when relations between the two powers entered into crisis, after the US shot down a Chinese balloon, which was flying over its territory, supposedly for espionage purposes.
Source: TSF
