The White House previously called reports on it “inaccurate.”
June 11 (EUROPA PRESS) –
A US official has assured that China is already operating a military base in Cuba whose function is to spy on US communications, and that it is “an inherited problem”, the US newspaper ‘Politico’ has published.
“When this administration took office in January 2021, we were made aware of a number of sensitive efforts by the PRC around the world to expand its overseas logistics, base and collection infrastructure globally to enable that [los militares] project and maintain military power at a greater distance,” the official told the newspaper, who preferred to remain anonymous.
These “sensitive efforts” have included the installation of the military base on Cuban soil in 2019, according to an intelligence document cited by the official, and he has assured that the Administration of US President Joe Biden has managed to “stop” China , which “isn’t exactly where they expected it to be.”
The Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, denied on Friday the existence of an agreement with China to install a military base focused on espionage on the island.
In addition, the spokesman for the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, previously indicated in statements to MSNBC that these reports “are imprecise”, although he did not explain in what sense.
Kirby, however, noted that they are watching Beijing very closely, since “from day one” the Biden Administration has been concerned “with China’s influence activities around the world, especially in this hemisphere and in this region.” .
China and the United States were locked in a diplomatic spat last February after Washington shot down a Chinese hot air balloon over its airspace for alleged espionage purposes, but China claimed it was a weather probe that went off course by accident. .
ALLEGED CHINA EXPANSION
The US authorities have already accused China on other occasions of having plans to open new military bases abroad, such as in Equatorial Guinea, Cambodia or the United Arab Emirates, something that China has flatly denied.
However, the only confirmed Chinese military base on foreign soil is in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, which was inaugurated in August 2017.
