China to establish electronic espionage base in Cuba: sources

China reached a million-dollar secret agreement with Cuba to place an electronic listening station on the island, just 145 kilometers from the United States, reported Thursday the Wall Street Journalciting US classified intelligence sources.

According to the officials, the facility would allow Beijing to collect electronic communications from the southeastern US, which is home to several military bases, as well as monitor the traffic of ships and other items.

However, the National Security Council’s (NHC) strategic communications coordinator, John Kirby, was quick to clarify that the information published by the Journal is not accurate.

“It’s not accurate,” Kirby responded in an interview with MSNBC about the report.

A senior NHC official also reiterated to the media on Thursday that the report is “not accurate.”

“We have had real concerns about China’s relationship with Cuba, and we have been concerned since the first day of the Administration about China’s activities in our hemisphere and around the world,” he said.

The official assured that the Security Council of the White House monitors “closely” this activity of Beijing in the region and insisted that they are “taking measures to counteract it.”

“We remain confident that we can meet all of our security commitments at home and in the region,” he added in a media call.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said they could not speak “of this specific report” but that they were “very aware of the efforts of the People’s Republic of China to invest in infrastructure around the world, which may have military purposes, including in this hemisphere, and we have talked about them many times.

The Wall Street Journal revealed that, according to intelligence officials, the station in Cuba would allow China to carry out intelligence signals, including emails, phone calls and satellite transmission, the newspaper revealed.

The headquarters of the US Central Command is based in Tampa, Florida and Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg, the largest military base in the country; is based in North Carolina, all in the Southeast.

China and Cuba have reached an agreement in principle that would imply the payment of “several billions of dollars” to Havana to allow the use of the listening station, reported the wsj.

The influx of capital would be very welcome for the island, embroiled in one of the worst economic crises in recent decades, which has sparked discontent by the management of the country’s communist government and has caused a record exodus to the US that last year exceeded the largest recent migration crises combined.

In Cuban territory, the Soviet Union had already installed a similar electronic espionage station: the Lourdes base in the vicinity of the Cuban capital. It closed permanently in 2001 and although there was talk in the Russian media of a possible reopening in 2014, it never materialized.

The Chinese and Cuban embassies in Washington have not responded to a request for comment, according to Reuters.

The deal has caused alarm in the Biden administration, according to the journalas this would represent a new threat in the US backyard.

The move comes as Washington and Beijing are taking tentative steps to defuse tensions raised by an alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States before the military shot it down off the East Coast.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to visit Beijing in the coming weeks, rescheduling a trip canceled in February amid the ballooning incident.

[Con colaboración del corresponsal de la VOA en la Casa Blanca, Jorge Agobian]

[Con información de Reuters]

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