An article published by the US newspaper ‘Wall Street Journal’ (WSJ) points out that the Chinese government would have reached an agreement with Havana for “several billions of dollars” to install a spy base that would serve to intercept communications within the United States. Joined. China has not declared on the subject but both the Cuban and the US Executives have denied the newspaper’s statements.
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In a press conference with local media, the Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossio, described the WSJ report as “totally mendacious and unfounded”, also adding that the island’s government rejects “any external military presence” in Latin America and the caribbean.
The island of Cuba is located just over 160 kilometers from US territory, so the installation of an espionage base such as the one claimed by the publication would allow Beijing to intercept military signals, naval traffic and digital communications between the citizens themselves. Americans in the southeast of the country.
The WSJ cites as sources US officials who have provided intelligence reports to the newspaper, however, the spokesman for the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, dismissed the information included in the alleged report.
China will pay Cuba to host a secret spy base, where Beijing could monitor American ships and electronic communications across the southeastern US https://t.co/KR8feLUc5a
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 8, 2023
“We have seen the report. It is not accurate,” Kirby told the ‘Reuters’ agency, however, adding that the relationship between Beijing and Havana causes “real concerns” within the US government, which is closely monitoring the communications between both nations.
“We are very concerned about China’s relationship with Cuba, and since the first day of the administration we have been concerned about China’s activities in our hemisphere and around the world,” said the US official.
On the other hand, Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for the US Defense Department, added that his department was unaware of such information. “We are not aware that China and Cuba are developing a new type of spy station,” Ryder said.
Alarms going off in Washington
Despite the fact that senior US and Cuban officials have dismissed the reports published by the WSJ, some members of the US chamber have not hidden their concerns about the possibility of a spy base on the Caribbean island.
Senators Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican, said in a joint statement that they were “deeply disturbed” by the article published by the US newspaper, and urged President Joe Biden to “take steps to prevent this serious threat to national security.”
The information published by the WSJ could truncate the diplomatic advances between China and the United States that, after the incident of the Chinese balloon that was shot down in American territory, would seem to be positive, since both delegations would be working so that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken , will visit China in the near future.
In a situation similar to the 1962 missile crisis, where the extinct Soviet Union allegedly installed missiles on the island of Cuba and which led to the height of the Cold War, the alleged installation of a Chinese spy base on the Havana could intensify the differences between the two current superpowers.
With Reuters, EFE and local media
