China has been trying for years to expand its spy operations from Cuba, where it honed its capabilities in 2019, a White House official who did not want to be named said Saturday.
This statement comes after various US media, following the Wall Street JournalHe spoke in recent days of an agreement between Havana and Beijing to install an “espionage base” on the island, some 160 km from Florida, to capture data in the United States.
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, called the article in the Wall Street Journal of “inaccurate”.
Bases “around the world”
But according to the official who requested anonymity, the US executive now indicates that when Joe Biden came to power in January 2021, his services were informed of China’s “efforts” to establish bases “around the world”, especially for espionage. .
Among those “efforts” was “the presence of China’s intelligence-gathering sites in Cuba,” the official said, adding that Beijing “perfected its intelligence-gathering sites in Cuba in 2019.”
“This is well established in the intelligence records,” the official said.
He assured that the Biden administration had “inherited” this situation and promised to respond to plans to establish Chinese bases around the world “with discretion and caution”, including through diplomatic channels, with various governments.
“Slanderous speculations”, according to Cuba
The US government, says the same source, has “slowed down” China’s plans for expansion abroad, but “there are still challenges and we remain concerned” regarding the relationship with Cuba.
“China will continue trying to strengthen its presence in Cuba and we will continue working to avoid it,” he said.
“Slanderous speculations continue,” the Cuban government reacted this Saturday, which has already denied the presence of a Chinese spy base in its territory.
They are “evidently incited by some media to cause harm and worry, without respecting the minimum communication standards and without providing data or evidence to support what they disseminate,” Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cossío said on Twitter. On Thursday, he described this press information as “false and unfounded.”
Tense relations between Beijing and Washington
The issue is delicate on a diplomatic level, at a time when the US president says he expects a “thaw” of very tense relations with Beijing, and evokes a meeting in the more or less near future with his counterpart Xi Jinping.
It is also embarrassing politically for Joe Biden, who is campaigning for re-election in 2024. He is regularly criticized by the opposition for his lack of firmness against both China and the communist regime in Cuba.
The relationship between the two powers experienced a sharp upsurge in tension in February, after the United States destroyed a Chinese balloon that was flying over its soil. The White House later accused Beijing of using it for espionage, which China has denied. This incident led to the cancellation of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China. This visit has just been rescheduled for June 18.
Source: BFM TV
